Pandagrub:Halloween Edition

This week on pandagrub we are going to be celebrating Halloween! The panda that we are using is a new panda. He is from China. We are going to show him how to celebrate Halloween.

 The panda in the picture above is named Professor Zhang. We named him this because of his professorial clothing. Professor Zhang is sitting with the ingredients that we are using to make caramel candies. The ingredients are vanilla, light corn syrup, heavy cream, and unsalted butter.

 Professor Zhang is melting the butter in a saucepan.  After the butter melts, just add the remaining ingredients while stirring continuously on medium heat.  (Sorry -- I forgot to take pictures of this step!)

 Now that we have finished making the caramel we are going to let it cool. Professor Zhang is pouring the caramel into a nine-inch pan.  And that's basically it!  It's so easy!  (And sooooo gooooood!)

 Now that the caramel has cooled,we are going to cut it into pieces. Make sure not to cool the caramel for too long or it will become too hard and impossible to cut. If you cool the caramel too long, you can melt it a little by putting in the oven. Don't put the caramel in the oven for too long or the caramel will melt.

We wrapped the caramel in wax paper squares. It took us a while to wrap them all but it was worth it because now they look like "real" candies. 

All of Professor Zhang's hard work has paid off! Now he gets to eat all of the caramels!  For Halloween, we are going to teach him how to trick or treat.  His costume will be...... you guessed it... a professorial panda!!!  For the full recipe for the caramels, click here.

I brought my candies to school and gymnastics and shared them with my friends and coaches.  Everyone said that they were delicious!

This year for Halloween, my best friend Maya and I are going to be peanut butter and jelly. Maya  is going to be peanut butter, and I am going to be jelly. We made our costumes together with things we found around the house.  We used cardboard, felt, aluminum foil, and lots and lots of glue.  What are you going to be for Halloween?  Are you making your costume?  Send us your photos!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Pandagrub: Pumpkin Painting Edition

This week on pandagrub we are going to be painting pumpkins!

I am going to show some ways to decorate your pumpkin without taking the guts out and making a mess.

Can you guess what I am going to do with my pumpkin? I am going to make a panda pumpkin!

 Can you tell Flatty and the pumpkin apart?

 Professor Shang painted pi on her pumpkin. So now it's pumpkin "pi"!

Here are some other ways to decorate your pumpkins. I made a Hello Kitty pumpkin,two glitter pumpkins,and I drew a design on the last one. I made all of these pumpkins without making a mess! For last year's Halloween edition I made twix bars and dressed up all the pandas. For the full information about last year's Halloween edition click here.Last year I dressed up as Cup of Noodles. Stay tuned for this year's Halloween edition! 

Pandagrub Birthday Edition

This week on pandagrub, we are going to be celebrating my older brother's birthday. For his birthday cake, we made a chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting, and we decorated his cake so it looks like a panda!

 To make his birthday cake look like a panda my mom and I used chocolate sprinkles to make the design of the pandas eyes,ears,nose,and mouth. For the panda's eyes we used some mini marshmallows.

Do you think that the cake looks like one of my pandas? Comment which panda he looks like to you!

My brother thought that this cake was very moist and had a delicious chocolatey flavor. He also thought that the frosting went perfectly with the chocolate cake.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON!

We have a lot of summer and fall birthdays in my family. That is why you have seen so many cakes lately! It was also Hua Mei, the giant panda's birthday on August 21. Hua Mei turned 13 years old. Hua Mei used to live in the San Diego Zoo, but now she lives in China.

Pandagrub: Back to School

This week on pandagrub we are going back to school!

 In the picture above is my school lunch and my panda lunch bag.

 These are my sides: watermelon,grapes,and veggie sticks.

 My sandwich consists of cheddar cheese,lettuce,and turkey on sourdough bread.

I hope everyone had a great first school day, and I hope that everyone had a healthy lunch. If you want to see some great school lunches from all around the world check out this blog called Never Seconds.

Pandagrub Birthday Edition: Tres Leches Cake

This week on pandagrub we are going to be celebrating my dad's birthday. For his birthday cake we are going to be making a tres leches cake. Tres leches means three milks in Spanish.

   The panda in the picture above is named Owo. (Can you guess why I named him that? Look carefully at Owo's cute face!) Owo is sitting with the three milks that we are going to be using in the tres leches cake. He is sitting with 12 ounces of sweetened condensed milk, 14 ounces of evaporated milk, and 1 cup of half and half.

First, make the batter for a 13" x 9" yellow cake (see recipe below).  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the cake making part!) While the cake is in the oven, make the glaze for the cake. Combine the condensed milk, evaporated milk, and half and half in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together until smooth. When you are finished whisking the glaze together it should look like the picture above.

After the cake is completely cooled down, poke holes in the cake with a toothpick (you can also use a fork but I used a toothpick so it would be neater.) Owo got a little carried away while poking all of the holes with his fancy toothpicks! Don't forget to poke the toothpick all the way through the cake so the glaze seeps in everywhere -- including down to the bottom of the cake.

When Owo and I finally finished poking the holes, we poured the condensed milk, evaporated milk,and half and half over the cake and the holes in the cake absorbed the liquid.

After the glazed seeped into the cake, Owo spread homemade whipped cream frosting over the cake as a finishing touch.

Owo was very excited to eat the tres leches cake. Owo thought that the cake was very delicious because it had the perfect amount of sweetness, lightness and creaminess. He especially enjoyed how moist the cake was because of the tres leches glaze. For the full tres leches cake recipe, click here.

Happy 4th of July!

This week on pandagrub, we celebrated the 4th of July with a Flag Cake!  

 Kettlecorn loves the 4th of July.  We try to make this cake every year.  The cake is a white cake with buttercream frosting and garnished with raspberries and blueberries!  Hope you had a great 4th!

Pandagrub Lunar New Year Edition

 This week on pandagrub we are going to be celebrating the Lunar New Year! We are making homemade dumplings. In Korea, dumplings are called mandoo. In Japan, dumplings are called gyoza, and in China, dumplings are called jiaozi.  In our house, we call them mandoo because our main dumpling maker (my mom) is Korean.

 The panda in the picture above is named Pei Pei. Pei Pei is sitting with the ingredients for the dumplings. This recipe is my mom's recipe that she keeps in her head so she doesn't have precise measurements.  She just eyeballs it.  The ingredients for the dumplings are:
1 lb. ground beef or chicken or pork
1 18 oz. container of firm tofu
1/2 head of cabbage (blanched first and then finely chopped)
1 bunch of scallions
2 eggs
2 TBS chopped garlic
salt
pepper

Here is the most important ingredient for the dumplings: 3 10 oz. packages of Nanka Seimen Golden Dragon Gyoza Skin. Make sure you get the round ones. Make sure to defrost.You must use these. These dumpling skins are not too thick but not too thin.

This recipe makes about 150 dumplings. 

My mom likes to put the dumplings on a saran wrap lined baking sheet.  (Make sure that they don't touch each other.)  She then puts the baking sheet in the freezer.  Once the dumplings are frozen solid, you can put them in a plastic ziploc bag and store them in the freezer.  If you don't freeze them individually on the baking sheet first and you just put them straight into the ziploc bag, you will just get a giant ball of frozen dumpling -- and Pei Pei will be very disappointed.  

 Mix  everything but the dumpling skins together. Fill a bowl up with water and then gather your defrosted dumpling skins.

First add about one or two tsp of the dumpling filling into the middle of the dumpling wrapper.

 Put your finger in the water and then spread the water from you fingertip onto the edges of the dumpling skin. Fold the dumpling skin in half and make pleats across the top. These are the kind my mom makes. These are too hard for me.  

 An easier way to fold dumplings is to fold them half way across, and the wet your finger again and put the two edges of the dumpling skin together. (I fold these much better.)

 The dumplings are ready to be frozen!  Make sure they aren't touching each other.

In the picture above is some of the dumplings that have been fried. Pei Pei is ready to eat them.

 Yum! These look good and taste even better!

 Here's Pei Pei jumping in front of a painting that is an abstract version of the Chinese character for the word dragon (龍). My Grandpa painted this picture.

Happy Lunar New Year everyone!

Pandagrub Birthday Edition

This week on pandagrub we are going to be celebrating my 10th birthday!

 In the picture above are chocolate brownies that I made for my class at school. ( Notice the special pandagrub stickers.)

The panda in the picture above is named BamBoo. He is sitting next to some homemade lemon sugar cookies which we used to make ice cream sandwiches. The ice cream flavor is chocolate chip. The ice cream sandwiches are for my gymnastics team.

After being packaged, the delicious lemon sugar cookie chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches are ready to head to gymnastics.

Some of the things I got for my birthday were a pandagrub t-shirt, a panda hat, panda bobbleheads, and a panda necklace. It was a good day because I got to spend time with my family.

Pandagrub Christmas Edition

Welcome to Pandagrub Christmas Edition! I love pandas so much I decided to get a panda ornament!  Part of my family's  holiday tradition is to bake holiday cookies.

Hmmm I wonder what kind of cookies you can make with Andes mints?!? Why chocolate 

 mint candies cookies! 

 These cookies are full of chocolately deliciousness. Check out the melted candies on top. For the full recipe click here.

 The next cookies we are making are peppermint pinwheel cookies. For the red color and minty flavors you must use Pure Peppermint Extract and red food coloring.

These cookies are minty, delicious, and flavorful. For the peppermint pinwheel recipe click here.

Next is my favorite holiday treat, FUDGE! This fudge is my favorite  because it is very rich, creamy, and full of  chocolate flavor. The topping is made of crushed  candy cane and green sprinkles. For this holiday treat click here.

 Next is my brother's favorite cookie.... snickerdoodles. After being rolled in cinnamon sugar the cookie dough is ready to go in the oven. 

These snickerdoodles are crispy and soft at the same time. For this delicious cookie recipe click here.

 The panda in the picture above is named Shabster. Shabster is very excited for the Christmas cookies.

Shabster has been waiting for days to eat these holiday treats.

 After making all those cookies  BamBam is ready to decorate gingerbread house. There is nothing sadder than a naked gingerbread house.

Let's see if our friend Chloe can help BamBam decorate his naked gingerbread house.

Happy Holidays!