I was just about to leave.

Proud of myself that there was nothing in the store that I wanted.

Then I turned the corner.

I saw it and immediately said ‘I’ll take it.’

And that is how the world’s cutest stew pot ended up in my kitchen.

The thing is – it was a set! But I passed on the accompanying saucepan. I have some self control, sheesh!

Hm, maybe I’ll go back next week…

I got this sandwich maker for xmas and was SO excited only to find out there were no images of Hello Kitty burned into the sandwich. What.

Nope, just a plain old sandwich press. BO- to the RING. Oh well. I had promised the kids sandwiches for dinner, so we tried it out anyway.

I was going for a ‘pizza pocket’ so I set up pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, colby cheese, salami, turkey and olives. (These were the ingredients requested, btw).

My SIL went heavy on the olives, the Kid went heavy on the cheese, and the Baby? Just meat. Nothin’ else. He couldn’t be bothered, I guess.

As everyone assembled their sandwiches, I buttered both sides of the bread and stuck it in. Oddly enough, the Baby’s (cheese-less) turned out the BEST. Just perfect little sandwich shapes! Meanwhile the overloaded cheese did a number on the machine and it was a cheese-apocalypse. Melted cheese everywhere that took me over and hour to try and scrape off. Not. Good.

I love this thing, but really the clean up will be the death of me. Since this one only cost $10 at Target, I’m thinking I should go big pimpin’ and buy a ‘professional’ one, I think (hope) the clean up wouldn’t be such a nightmare.

The kids (and the SIL) had so much fun making their own sandwiches they asked to do it again the following night! I’d still like a Hello Kitty face burned into mine, just sayin’.

This is the last week for the Hello Kitty: 3 Apples exhibit at Royal T. Seems like I was just at the grand opening a few weeks ago. Oh yeah. It WAS a few weeks ago! I will be sad to see it go, but before it leaves I got in one last look AND had the world’s cutest tea with some friends…

I got a special invite to the VIP opening night party for the Three Apples – Hello Kitty exhibit at the Royal T Cafe in Culver City. It’s Hello Kitty’s 35 anniversary so there was a big party with tons of press, celebrities (Paris Hilton and Kimora Lee Simmons showed up) and of course…sweets!

What’s a birthday without a cake – three of them: strawberry, vanilla and chocolate!

In honor of Hello Kitty’s anniversary, here are some of my favorite Hello Kitty recipes that I’ve done in the past. Enjoy!

Mochi Waffle – *moffles

Hello Kitty Fondant Cupcakes

Hello Kitty Baked Pasta

My kids love waffles. So much that they were asking for them everyday for about two months. Talk about boredom in the kitchen. I try to liven them up when I can (hello, moffles!) , but something about a nice chocolate-y Hello Kitty just sounded good…

ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
3 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 Tablespoon melted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

In a bowl whisk flour, salt, sugar, cocoa powder and baking powder.

Carefully stir in the milk and the eggs. Then add the butter and vanilla until you get a nice batter. Don’t overstir. Fold in the mini chocolate chips.

Make according to your waffle maker directions.

This is an easy meal, and kids love to eat out of the little ‘bowls.’. I was lucky enough to find the world’s cutest Hello Kitty pasta, but any small shape will do!

ingredients:
melted butter
1 package pasta (small shapes are best)
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
salt
pepper
1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep six large ramekins (or 8 small) by greasing the inside with melted butter. Set aside.

Boil pasta according to directions. Drain and set aside.

While the pasta is boiling, start the sauce. In a large pan saute the chopped garlic and onion in olive oil for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, oregano, basil and salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the sauce with the drained pasta and spoon into your prepped ramekins. Top with the shredded cheese, sprinkle with a tiny bit more salt and pepper.

Place ramekins on a baking sheet (in case they bubble over) and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool a bit and serve, careful kids – those ramekins are hot!

Sure, this meal is cuter because of the Hello Kitty pasta, but you can use any shape and it’s still a fun dinner for the kids. As for the dino shaped garlic bread, yeah – there’s no changing that. It’s a must.

If there’s one thing I know like the back of my hand, it’s Hello Kitty. So I’ve been wanting to do some Hello Kitty fondant work for a while.

you need:
white fondant
yellow gel dye
red gel dye
black gel dye

Obviously you only need to dye VERY LITTLE of the fondant yellow, since it is just for the itty bitty noses. If you look at Hello Kitty’s head it’s basically an oval, so I started by making a roundish oval. I then made little pointy triangles for ears, oval nose, oval black eyes – and there you have the basic face.

The red bow is just two rounded end triangles put poit to point, with a big ‘ol circle in the middle. When you add the bow in red you know it’s Hello Kitty. The bow is rather large and takes up quite a bit of the side of the face.

What I never really realized is how much the whiskers make a difference. I sometimes forget they are there, but when you don’t put them on the face, it seems somehow incomplete.

I also made a few Pirate Kitty faces cause pirates make everything more awesome.

Hello Kitty is a great intro to fondant since the basics of the head is white. Along with small dyed pieces, the whole face comes together rather quickly.

So I saw this Martha Stewart recipe for ‘strawberry bread‘ – but the recipe needed that little, somethin’ somethin’…which is mochi, of course. So I adjusted the recipe…a lot. So much so that it doesn’t seem like ‘bread’ to me, it’s more like a loaf cake which OF COURSE, I turned into cupcakes. Yes – the Hello Kitty liners make them taste better…

ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 pint strawberries (rinsed, hulled, quartered)
1 cup flour
3/4 cup mochiko
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

If you don’t know what mochiko is, it’s a rice flour that give a nice flavor and chew – especially to baked goods. You can find it in an asian supermarket.

In a small saucepan, bring the strawberries to a boil over medium heat – just about 2 minutes – you want them to look like this:

Set the strawberries aside.

In a medium bowl whisk the flour, mochiko, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs until light and fluffy. Alternate the flour mixture with the milk, adding the vanilla in at the end. Fold in the strawberries.

Pour into prepped liners. This recipe will fill 12 cupcake cups. Bake for 20 minutes depending on your oven, testing with a toothpick. Let cool on a wire rack. These are great plain, with a little powdered sugar on top, but also fantastic with a vanilla buttercream frosting.

‘Moffles’ are mochi thrown into a waffle maker, thus calling themselves…moffles. While that’s all well and good, I wanted to make an actual WAFFLE. So I made up some waffle batter but changed the ingredients to add mochiko. What I got was a crispy waffle with a mochi chew, not too far off the weirdness path and perfect for brunch. (It tastes better in a Hello Kitty waffle maker, for sure)

ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup mochiko
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 cups milk
2 eggs

Prep your waffle iron by buttering it up. The mochiko makes this batter pretty sticky, so you want to make sure you can get them out.

Combine all the dry ingredients, then add the wet. Mixing until just combined.

Pour into your waffle maker, and wait til they come out a nice crispy brown.

You’ll notice the familiar mochi chew. Great with fruit and syrup – something different for your morning breakfast.

I make this recipe every weekend for the boys. If you are going to feed more than 4 people, I suggest doubling this recipe. Or if you are going to feed 2 super fat hungry people, again, go ahead, double it.

ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
1 egg
1-1/2 Tablespoons butter, melted (plus more to grease the waffle maker)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Prep your waffle maker by pre-heating and buttering the grill. A Hello Kitty waffle maker makes it taste way better, trust me.

This is a simple one bowl recipe. Dump all the ingredients in a bowl, mix it up til the lumps are gone, and you’re good to go.

Now are these the cutest waffles you ever did see? And super tasty and cinnamon-y!