Bliss is breakfast on a weekend, prepared with love in your new home.

I had toast with overeasy eggs, bacon, orange juice and some really sweet cherries.

A perfect start to Sunday of a long weekend – that means it really only feels like Saturday.

We had K over for dinner last night. Mike grilled up some Copper River salmon steaks, we roasted some asparagus, made some garlic basmati rice and some mango salsa [recipe in extended entry].

For those of you who have never heard about Copper River salmon – these salmon survive the chilly rapids of the very long [300 miles or more] Copper River in the state of Alaska. This results in them having a very high content of natural oils and fat content. In turn, their flesh is very creamy when rare and melts in your mouth after it has been cooked.

We prepped them a la Alton B and rubbed it with some Asian Seafood rub, which has subtle sesame accents and even some bits of seaweed ground into it. I’m sure the same seared effect can be achieved on a pan.

Dessert was sweet-tart strawberries that K made from this recipe. It was amazing. The marinade was almost caramel-like. Mm mm… who knew that balsamic vinegar and brown sugar could do such wonders to strawberries.

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“Lost on a high and windy hill,
In the morning mist, two lovers kissed and the world stood still,
When our fingers touched,
my silent heart has taught us how to sing,
Yes, true love’s a many-splendored thing.”

by Paul Francis Webster & Sammy Fain

I spared Mike from the girlie romantic movie last night. While he was busy studying for his immunology test, I laid in bed with his Powerbook, watching an all-time romantic classic, Love is a Many-Splendored Thing. William Holden and Jennifer Jones have great chemistry. She is so beautiful and carried off her costumes so well – especially the cheongsam & shawl combo.

The version I saw was in color and anyone who had seen the B&W version would have missed the wonderful colors of her outfits. In one scene on board a plane, she wore a lovely dress-length coat adorned simply with one big elegant butterfly clasp.

The ending was poignant and needless to say, I had to shed quite a few tears. Still, girls just need to leak sometimes and then we feel all better. When Mike looked worriedly at me, I posed this question: “Would you rather a movie make me cry or you make me cry?” The answer came quite easy for him.

It is going to be a high of 90 deg F here in Seattle and that is a scorcher for these parts. Look at the forecast for the rest of the weekend – it looks like it’s going to be time to get a tan of some sort.

We are going to spend most of weekend unpacking furiously, visiting home improvement stores, gardening centers and relaxing in our new digs.

I took Star*bucks’ advice and got this treat to beat the warm weather we are getting today. I wish I was outside to bask in it but just another 2 hours I can wait.
Thanks K, you inspired this.
In background, ginger chews from Hannah and a cute Chinese New Year card from ity & awn earlier this year.
Yup, this is Star*bucks’ Frappucino 10th anniversary flavor – Mint Mocha Chip Frap.

Part of our family’s moving tradition is that we would light a charcoal stove at the new house to walk over as we enter the new home. Instead of purchasing a fancy hibachi, Mike made a little terracotta stove with some wire sheets and a terracotta pot.

The same stove should be used for boiling some water too. To me it symbolises the opening of a new hearth for the home.

Another advantage is that we can also use it like a hibachi for grilling satay too. Yes, I know, me and my food.

I’m back at work today. We’re still alive. Thankfully. There is still MUCH unpacking to do but we have a long weekend coming up so we know what we will be up to then. Thank you all for your very kind comments about Scarlett – she is a very pretty house and we are very grateful to be her occupants. We have a lot more space here since we don’t have to climb over boxes even though we have not unpacked.

Despite the busy-ness of packing, cleaning and moving, we managed to find time to eat some good meals.

Friday, I took the day off to pack. We ate lunch at Seven Star Pepper Sichuan – our favorite place now – it was Pork in Garlic Sauce, Pickled Pepper Fish and Chinese Mushrooms with Bok Choy. Yum! I think we had leftovers for dinner.

On Saturday, we ate breakfast at Tully’s then it was off to more packing. We had leftovers for lunch and dinner was bbq at Jones’. Let’s just say that I miss bbq in the south

Yesterday, we had breakfast at Crave – it was the best brunch I had since coming here. Mike ordered the biscuits & gravy, and I had the Dutch babies – it was all scrummy. Lunchtime came quickly and we went for some Pho at Pho Bac up the street from us on Rainier Ave.

I had really sore feet last evening but I am doing so much better today. For dinner last night, we made satay chicken again. I had planned to make it for a potluck today so we made extra.

Have a good week all!

UPDATE: Aiyaiyai…ok, Apple Dutch Babies are those cute little fluffy skillet pancakes made with apples. Much like these babies that Orangette had shared with us. Hers were much fluffier. Lucky gal!

We got our keys today, and also, a lovely welcome basket from our builder. It was almost surreal as I unlocked the door and opened it to enter in.

Meet Scarlett, we still cannot believe that she is now our home.

We did some preliminary moving – our clothes, the art pieces and some miscellaneous items. We are so very excited. So far, all has been smooth. Thank you all who have sent us good thoughts.

Tomorrow night, we will spend our first night there.

We won’t be online until the cable folks hook us up so I’ll be around after the weekend.

Seattle launches test of free Wi-Fi service and Columbia City’s downtown shops are one of the test areas.

We did pick good.

p.s. whooops thanks for the typo alert, Terry!

Last evening, Mike and I had a little midweek date at Philly Fevre – the oldest Philly Cheesesteak shop here in the Northwest. It’s on our way home from work so we decided to eat there. It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a good cheesesteak!

There are several different versions of hoagies here and you should definitely try them out.