My 16-year old daughter came home a few days ago with a bag of deep fried oreos. She said that she bought it at our local Quickly cafe. As a fan of fried oreos, I was thrilled to know that these were readily available, and that there was no need to wait for the next local county fair or carnival to indulge in these delightful, crunchy battered bites with rich, creamy oreo filling; these are also great to serve at parties. With a price tag of close to $4 for 6 pieces, it can be costly. I came to realize that these should be pretty easy to make at home for a lot less. After finding a recipe from kirbiecravings.com, I went to work and was pleased to find that I was right---these are so simple to make! The real kicker was the cost. With the buy one get one free offer at our local Safeway store on the Oreos, combined with the rest of the ingredients that I already had at home, you can just imagine the huge savings. Check the image above of my finished product. I choose to eat mine plain. Yet, there are other fun ways to serve this. Scroll down to see the variations and some tips. Here is the recipe I used:

                      HOMEMADE FRIED OREOS

10 oreos
1 cup Bisquick pancake mix
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
powdered sugar for dusting

1. In a small bowl, mix Bisquick, milk and egg. Stir until combined with a few lumps remaining. Batter should be thick.
2. Add oil in a pan deep enough for frying. Add oil until you have about 1 inch of oil, and heat to a medium high.
3. Once the oil is hot, dip an oreo into the pancake batter, turning on both sides until the oreo is fully coated (try to hold oreo on the very tips of your fingers so that as much of the oreo is covered and your fingers don't get in the way). Place the oreo into the hot oil and cook for about 30 seconds -1 min on each side until golden brown on both sides. Repeat with remaining oreos. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top before serving.

Variations:
-Sprinkled with powdered sugar
-With a side of whipped cream and chocolate sauce
-With a side of ice cream
-With cinnamon sugar sprinkled with lemon (I have not tried this, but it is said to elevate the yum factor!)

Tips:
-Once you place the oreos into the hot oil,  do not leave these unattended. They brown very easily.
-For a lighter batter, add one cup of lemon lime soda to the 1 cup of Bisquick pancake mix instead of the milk, and do the same for the rest
-Thick batter like those similar to funnel cake batter does not work with this. It takes too long to get them ready that the cream filling of the oreos just melts away and disappears.  

If you want to know about the calories, they have not been calculated. As executive sous chef Michelle Demarco of Delaware North, Busch stadium's concessionaire says about deep-fried oreos, "..this is 'fat free'- you buy the food" (or, in this case, you make it and) "you get the fat for free!" 

Hello Kitty Fans showed up in force last weekend. If you haven't heard, the Hello Kitty Mobile Cafe is in San Francisco offering cute Hello Kitty-themed treats and adorable goodies! See the photos, click on them to enlarge.

The food truck made its first debut last fall at the Hello Kitty Con in L.A. to celebrate Kitty's 40th anniversary. This is also part of the promotional tour through California as a preview of the much-anticipated Hello Kitty Cafe opening in Southern California later this year. The all-decked-Hello-Kitty & pink truck rolled into San Francisco last weekend, April 11th & 12th at the Cherry Blossom Festival at Post and Webster streets, Japantown. If you missed it, you can still catch it this Saturday, April 18th at the festival from 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Then, it will be at San Jose' Santana Row on Sunday, April 19th, from 10 a.m. -7 p.m. 

Here's what the Hello Kitty Truck Menu offers:
Hello Kitty Bow Water- $3 (bow-shaped water bottle)
Hello Kitty Strawberry Lemonade- $4
Hello Kitty 3-pc. Donut Box- $10
Hello Kitty Petit Fours Cakes-$15
Hello Kitty 5-pc. Macaron Box-$15
Hello Kitty Cafe T-shirt-$25

It will be wise to get there early to avoid the long wait. Some guests have reported standing in line for up to 2 hours. What fan could resist these cute and precious-looking treats? 

The next big event for Hello Kitty Fans will be this July at the Oracle Arena in Oakland for the Hello Kitty's Supercute Friendship Festival.  

Enjoy!

Aren't these adorable? Liv, 10-year old daughter of my wonderful and cherished friend from high school, Suzette Martensson, made these scuba diving eggs as give-away presents for their staff at Deep Blue Dive Center. Suzette and her husband own this dive center located at the Canary Islands in Spain. This simple and great idea can also be wonderful as wedding favors or presents for divers. For more info on the Deep Blue Dive Center visit their website at: http://www.deep-blue-diving.com