Long Distance Dinner Date

So I don't have much time to blog (STUPID DAYLIGHT SAVINGS!) since this day has flown by, but I have been told by numerous people that I should share my and JC's new weekend tradition with the world. So obviously maintaining a long-distance relationship is not easy. When your whole relationship for months at a time is the phone, things can get old very very fast. I know many people in LDRs say they run out of things to talk about. JC and I haven't run into that problem yet, but maybe that's because we're pursuing a "strategic theory of preventive action". (Seriously, how much of a military history dork am I?) What I mean by that is that we do things to make our relationship as new and different and fun as possible to avoid the boredom or monotony of phone call after phone call. Last month, we went on a "movie date". We both went to the theater - him in California and myself in Virginia - to see Avatar. Then we called each other and talked about favorite scenes, what we thought etc.

Our newest long distance date has been cooking dinner together from across the miles. We both have set goals for ourselves to try to cook better and eat right and one of the ways we've started doing that is by cooking together. How do we cook together from across the miles? Through the miracle of Skype, of course!

Seriously, Skype has made this distance thing a piece of cake. Whether we're playing each other online in a not-so-friendly (we are both uber-competitive) game of backgammon or Scrabble, or watching the Olympic hockey finals together, we have been able to spend lots of afternoons and evenings 'together' without actually being together.

So onto the dinner date. What happens is that each week one of us picks out a new meal for us to try out and make on Sunday night. We both are super busy during the week and so making one giant meal that can feed us for most of the week is the best way to go. I always TRIED to do this back in the fall, but most Sundays in the fall I am parked out watching football and planning lessons around the clock so I never did. It doesn't take me hours to plan lessons now and cooking with him over Skype is so much fun I love doing it. This weekend he picked out a lemon-poppyseed chicken dish. I suggested adding veggies and roasted red potatoes on the side and so we are set with what we need. Usually, we get that to each other on Saturday so we have plenty of time to go shopping. Now with the 3 hour time difference, it usually happens that I eat late and he eats early, but compromise is a part of every relationship, right?

So we'll usually text back and forth about when we want to start dinner. When we're ready, we'll both sign on Skype and I'll park my laptop on the breakfast bar and position it so he can see everything I'm doing. He'll do the same and then we get to work, chatting with each other as we go. I will say it can get pretty comical. Neither of us are the greatest cooks so there is a lot of: "when did you add in that?" or "how long does this need to cook for?". It's all very amusing though. And we're both so proud of ourselves when we finish. The best part is definitely sitting back - still on Skype of course - and enjoying the meal together. It is a wonderful new tradition that I hope we continue. I get to scratch off so many of my goals for the year - eat better, learn new recipes, become a better cook and do more fun things with JC! So that's one tip out of the Abigail and JC long-distance book of love. We've only been at this long-distance thing about 4 months and certainly don't claim to be experts at this, but it's definitely working for us!

Next week I get to pick the recipe so anyone have a good one to share??