I walk into the kitchen on Saturday and discover my bride furiously preparing food.

On the counter I see a gigantic bag of frozen green beans. Five pounds of green beans! Wow! I’ve never seen that many green beans gathered in one place at one time before and am astounded at their combined volume.

Of course my curiosity is peaked.

“So, why so many green beans?” I ask.

“Making a green bean casserole,” comes the curt reply. You know the type… “don’t-come-around-asking-stupid-questions,-can’t-you-see-I’m-busy” type of reply.

I’m imagining a wash tub sized casserole dish and am wondering how it will fit in the oven. Five pounds of green beans is a lot of green beans.

Still being perplexed, I ask her why a green bean casserole. Honestly, I don’t think she has made ANY type of casserole more than 3 or 4 times in 18 years of marriage. And those were for functions where it was practically obligatory to do so, like Baptist pot lucks.

You know that kind of look that is typically linked to the above “curt reply,” the “don’t-make-me-hurt-you” kind? It was enough to have a chilling effort on my aforementioned curiosity and I quickly retraced my steps out of the kitchen.

Fifteen minutes later I’m asked: “How many green beans are in 24 ounces?”

Again, honestly, I didn’t think before opening my mouth. My reply: “I don’t know, I’ve never counted.”

“Then get in here and count!”

After a couple of quick mental calculations I realized it was a pound and a half. So green beans properly separated, I’m told to leave the kitchen.

First, I’m relieve that only a pound and a half of green beans will be used. But then, I’m concerned about the other three and a half pounds. I started to aske and decided not to.

The end of the story is that we had green bean casserole – twice – over the weekend. And it was delicious (seriously! I’m not saying that just to protect myself). Seems she came across a recipe that aroused her interest and she decided to try it. I love that kind of experimentation!

I still don’t understand the five pounds instead of a smaller quantity; but, I knew that I wasn’t going to pursue that. I’m antecipating seeing the other three and a half pounds show up in other assorted food stuffs over the next few …months.

A footnote to the story. The sponge cake exchange I mentioned yesterday? It took place in the context of the green beans. Does it make more sense now?