A Minor Mystery

I was sorting through a kitchen drawer a few weeks ago and I found a flexible red tube. It was about five inches long. I didn’t know what it was, but it looked like it might slide over the handle of a hot pan. That was my best first guess.

The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t trust my original instinct. The tube might melt if it got too hot. I stuck it back in the drawer but couldn’t get it out of my mind. It’s funny how the little mysteries of life stick with you.

I wasn’t obsessed with the tube. Just perplexed. An obsession is persistent fixation. I’m not that. If you’re perplexed, you’re just very puzzled. I was puzzled but not fixated. I knew I’d learn the truth someday.

I open that drawer almost every day. It’s where Ruth kept the kitchen utensils that wouldn’t fit or were too dangerous to put in the crock on the kitchen counter. There are couple of cheese knifes, a handheld can opener, a hammer for tenderizing meat, two sets of white measuring cups, a set of measuring spoons, a metal contraption for chopping, a couple of pizza cutters, kitchen scissors, two meat thermometers, a garlic press, and I kid you not, a Mayo knife. I don’t think that the Mayo knife has ever been used. It’s just been sitting in a corner of the drawer. I know it’s a Mayo knife because that’s how it’s labeled. I wish the manufacturer would have labeled the red tube.

I mentioned the tube in one of the classes I’m taking. I described it as best I could, but no one ventured a guess. Everyone agreed that the possibility that it might melt ruled out the hot pan cover.

A couple of weeks passed. I brought up the subject to my sister-in-law, Kathy, and my friend, Diane. One of them was with Ruth when she bought it. The red tube is used to remove the thin outer layer of garlic. You know, the little tissue paper skin. I’m told you stick a clove in and then push down on the tube as you roll it back and forth. After that you take the defrocked garlic and put in a press or rub it across the garlic plate. At least that’s what I call it.

We’ve had this thing for several years. Ruth never explained its function. I’ve made a few batches of gumbo each year for the past dozen years. Every time I made it; I peeled the garlic by hand. Ruth watched me do it. I wish she would have shared the red tube secret with me. It would have come in handy. Now that I know what I know, I’ll probably whip up a pot of gumbo next week.