Long time no TILT

So I'd like to say that I've been neglecting my blog because I've been crazy busy, but it is more like after a couple of weeks of being crazy busy I've been relaxing and largely avoiding my computer. It doesn't help that I've also been away for the past few weekends, spending them with U as his car is in the process of dying and he doesn't trust it for the drive down to Tokyo. The good news, however, is that one of the things we did the weekend before last was to go car shopping! While the plastic wrap covering the seats and just about everywhere else in the cars we test drove was somewhat disconcerting, the whole process was actually much less painful than I had worried and I was pleasantly surprised with the guy at the dealership who spoke to both me and U equally and never once treated me differently or made me feel like a foreigner.

So, besides the new car that will be arriving in two weeks, what am I loving this Thursday?

- meeting a bloggy friend in real life! She visited the museum and we went for lunch. It was great to meet her and I look forward to doing so again soon, but I couldn't get over the very odd feeling of having a conversation with somebody I'd only just met and yet already "knew."

- my microwave steamer! U heard about these steamer containers for microwaves. When we were shopping the weekend before last we passed a kitchen shop and he dragged me in to take a look. The entire recipe book caught my interest - with all sorts of super simple and delicious looking recipes - but U was taken by one particular recipe - for chocolate cake! Since he lives in a company dorm and has no cooking facilities he ended up buying the steamer for me, and I've been having fun steaming veggies (and then negating the healthiness by smothering them with cheese! mmmmm!!) I did make him a chocolate cake this past weekend, however, and even whipped up a matcha buttercream frosting to go with it... yummmm!