Szechuan Tuna and Blood Orange-Black Olive Salad with 2007 Ponzi Pinot Noir

Missing out on a possible dream apartment by a matter of hours made our hearts drop. It wasn't the end of the world by any means, but for a few hours, something close to that feeling came over both of us, in no small part a testament to what the physical and psychological hellhole our current apartment has become.

When a better place in many, many ways opened up, two days later, we grabbed it by the balls and had sex with the leasing process. This. Was. Going. To. Happen.

And it did. Life is better.

Eating rare Szechuan tuna freshness during the application process also made things better, a meal we've had a ton of times before, but not lately.

Szechuan peppercorns, cardamom, white pepper, coriander and thyme ground up and crusted on the tuna, seared rare. Served with blood oranges and black olives tossed with shallot, thyme, cumin and hazelnut oil. Mâche salad with pomegranate seeds. Seeduction bread on the side with butter. Über-satisfying. Beautiful dry low heat with a background bright, almost sweetness brought by the Szechuan peppercorns to the great rare tuna. Eat this food and you'll feel as clean and bright as the freakin' food.

We have a few leftover Ponzi pinot noirs laying around since we mostly moved on from Oregon pinot noir a few years ago. Still like it, just not buying it. Here, a 2007, we found an awful lot of deliciousness for a wine with a more than fair amount of age on it. Fresh wet earth, dying roses, and settling, yet a still lively red fruit blend in very nice proportion. Almost a molasses bread note floating around in the back. Entirely pleasant, and rather nice all-around here with the tuna, bread, mâche, everything. It was a nice reminder why we liked Ponzi in the first place.

Now, two months of sifting through everything we own and finding out what goes.

And we're hiring movers. Because we're adults and that's what adults do.