Long Distance Rituals

I never thought that it would be such a challenge to maintain an intense long-distance relationship. My girlfriend and I have had an online friendship for the past few years, grounded by high school memories, and continued intermittently through a 15-year period of platonic banter...yet even if we had built a solid foundation of uber comfort, the stakes have been raised, and now we're in a serious commitment. Instant messaging isn't the same as it used to be.

We wondered what it would take to "be in a commitment" though physically separated. At the end of our brainstorming, we decided to get creative, and somewhat dedicate our little tasks and accomplishments in our respective cities to each other. Sounds vague, yes...but I believe an example is appropriate to illustrate this airyfairy mantra:

Since we are both foodies, we came up with the idea of giving each other simple recipes to try and cook.

She would give me a recipe, then cook that recipe herself, and then I would attempt to mimic what she did and cook it myself, and then vice versa. Recently, she decided to give me a new recipe of sole fillet with a honey dijon marinade. The challenge was on. For good measure, I decided to steam some garlic broccoli, and prepare a side of tri-colore fusilli pasta with a light parsley-butter sauce and baby bella mushrooms.

Well, I tried cooking it for dinner tonight, and here are the results. The only sole fillets available were very thinly cut, so due to overmarinading, the fillets broke up into little shreds, looking like poor excuses for pale chicken strips. The taste was very tangy and light. I liked it very much, although next time, I'm going to reduce the amount of honey I use for the marinade and perhaps increase the tabasco. Cooking needs its adjustments so that the end result is "just right" after a few attempts, and fittingly, it will be these little rituals and adjustments that will steadily help us to get better at this thing called a long-distance relationship.