After a length of time, she had no clue how long it had been exactly, the two of them laid there in silence while Sarah tried to make sense of everything she had just heard. For the most part all she could remember is that Chase wasn’t sure how he’d get 18 acres of corn to fit into his silo, he was planning to split 90 acres into five 18 acre fields. She learned that a cover crops can be used to protect soil among other things, and that Chase was trying to pinpoint exactly which cover crops he was going to use. She also had learned that a forage harvester was used to chop up the whole plant for silage instead of just harvesting the grain off of it, which is what a combine does. She also learned that a cow’s stomach has four parts and that cattle can actually digest cellulose which is why they can eat grass and other animals like humans can’t.
After a few more minutes of lying there, Chase finally broke the silence. “Sarah,” he said, “you seem comfortable so I hate to make you get up, but I need to use the bathroom.”
“Aww.” She said in a fake pouty voice. She smiled up at him to get his reaction and caught him rolling his eyes. “It’s fine I probably should get up and move around a little anyways.” She admitted.
Chase chuckled in response. “Thanks.” He said. She proceeded to get off of him, making sure she didn’t put weight on his shoulder this time. Chase got up after her and disappeared towards the bathroom. At that point, she decided to check her phone and found out that it was already 11:30. That realization instantly made her aware of the fact that she was a little hungry. She decided to wait until Chase returned from the bathroom to ask about that.
In the meantime, she took a few moments to stretch a bit and to think about exactly what she wanted to eat for lunch. Not that she had any clue what Chase had around for her to work with. Maybe all he had around was frozen food or stuff for the microwave. Part of her wanted to actually cook something for him as a thank you for letting her stay with him.
Just about then, Chase returned from his visit to the bathroom. “I don’t know about you,” he said as she turned to face him, “but I’m ready for lunch.”
She smiled in response, “I was just thinking that. I didn’t realize it was already 11:30.”
“Yeah, me too.” He agreed. “I’m probably just gonna make a PB&J and get an apple or something. Feel free to explore the pantry and see what you want.”
“Is it alright if I cook something?” She asked, a bit sheepish.
Chase stood there looking at her as if he was trying to process what she’d just told him. A smile slowly spread across his face before he responded. “Depends,” he said, “do I get some?”
She looked at the cheeky grin that was now on his face and couldn’t keep herself from giggling. “Well since you were nice enough to let me stay here…” she began, “I suppose I can make you some.” A cheeky smile of her own appeared on her face.
“Well, be my guest then.” He responded, gesturing towards his kitchen. “Besides,” he added as she was about to turn around, “if the rest of your cooking is as good as that pie you gave me after Thanksgiving, it’s probably better than anything I’ve ever made.”
Sarah felt herself blush at the compliment. It was nice to get a compliment on her cooking from someone other than her mom. She really did enjoy cooking, but she missed having someone besides herself to cook for. She also internally smirked at herself. She had fallen hard enough for this guy that she was excited to cook for him. Regardless, she wasn’t going to get to make anything if she didn’t get started.
“Anything in the pantry or in the fridge is fair game.” He told her, answering the question she was about to ask. She nodded and immediately started looking to see what she could find. She managed to find everything she needed to make spaghetti, something semi-easy for her to make. She did want to find a vegetable of some kind to make with it. Unfortunately, she wasn’t having much luck and only managed to find some frozen broccoli.
“Hmm.” She thought.
“What do you need?” Chase asked, apparently she had been thinking out loud.
“I was gonna make a vegetable, but I don’t really want to make broccoli.” She answered, still half thinking out loud.
“I’ve got canned green beans downstairs,” Chase responded, “will those work?”
Sarah’s mind immediately jumped to taking those canned beans and melting a little bit of butter adding a bit of salt and pepper with some lemon juice. “Yeah that’ll work.” She replied.
“Alright.” Chase said as he got up and made his way through the kitchen and downstairs. Sarah continued gathering everything she needed to cook everything. She grabbed a pot for the spaghetti and a smaller one for the sauce and meatballs. She figured she would just microwave the beans in a bowl. After she had started the sauce, Chase returned to the kitchen with the green beans, except Sarah was a bit surprised at what she saw. She had always seen canned green beans in a can, and yet Chase had brought up two glass jars.
“What?” He asked, noticing her looking at the jars he was holding.
“I’ve never seen canned beans like that.” She replied.
“You’ve never seen canned beans in a mason jar?” He responded, a bit of surprise evident in his voice.
“Nope.” Sarah admitted.
“Oh you’d better believe you’re gonna learn how to do that this summer.” He told her, cracking a smile. “My grandma loves canning things. Hell, she made me bring these when I moved out here.”
Sarah smiled in response before returning to what she was doing. Chase set the jars on the counter and returned to the living room where she could see that he was doing something on his phone and scribbling something down.
Before long, she had the meatballs and spaghetti both on and was ready to start the beans. She walked over to the jars of beans and grabbed a bowl to microwave them in. As she looked at them, she realized that they didn’t open like a normal jar, the lids were too thin to even have threads. She looked at it for a bit trying to figure out what she was looking at.
“You really haven’t seen one of those before, have you?” Chase asked, having somehow made it into the kitchen without her noticing.
After recovering from the scare he accidentally gave her, she shook her head in response.
“Here.” He said, holding out his hand. She gave him the jar she was holding and he took it and pulled the lid off. “These lids are kept on by the air pressure around them and they aren’t reusable if used that way so there’s no real need to be gentle. If you have to bend it to get it off it’s really not the end of the word.” He gave her the opened jar and threw away the lid. She emptied the jar into a bowl and put it in the sink. Then, she grabbed the other jar and tried to pull the lid off. She couldn’t pull it straight of so she tried to “peel” it off. That worked and she had to admit she was prouder of herself than she probably should have been considering she had just opened a jar. Regardless, she emptied the second jar into the bowl and put the jar in the sink and the lid in the trash. She then took the bowl of beans and put them in the microwave and started warming them up.