Pies in a Jar

This week on pandagrub, we are going to be making pies in a jar.

 The panda in the picture above is named Tiny. Tiny is sitting with the ingredients to make the pie filling. The ingredients are brown sugar, flour, blueberries, and lemon juice. ( You can use any fruit that you desire.) You will also need canning jars which you can find at Cookin' Stuff. Cookin' Stuff is a cooking supply store in Torrance.

After making and rolling out your pie crust, cut out circles with the canning jar lids. The dough circles will be on the top of the filling. Use mini cookie cutters and cut out shapes in the middle of the dough circles.

Use the left over dough to create dough balls in the bottom of the jar.

Spread the dough ball along the sides of the canning jar.

 Add the fruit filling of the pie into the pie dough. 

Add the top of the pie and place the mini decoration. Make sure to leave a hole in the middle of the top layer of the pie or it will explode.

 After being baked at 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes the pies are ready to be eaten! Tiny just can't wait to eat the pies.

 Yum! Look at the blueberry filling.

For the full pie in a jar recipe click here.

Lots and Lots of Pandas

Lots of people ask me, "how many pandas do you have?" I'm not sure, but here are some pictures of some my pandas.

January 17, 2012 UPDATE:  One of our readers spotted Blossom missing in the photos above!  Blossom was hiding from us at the time of the original post but we found her today!  Here's a photo of her with her pink scarf with some of her bobble head friends and other panda accessories.

Wow, Blossom sure is popular in the panda community.

Deviled Eggs

This week on pandagrub we are going to make deviled eggs. Deviled eggs are my favorite food.

 The panda in the picture above is named Chocolate. In the picture above Chocolate is sitting next to the ingredients for the deviled eggs. The ingredients are: hard boiled eggs, ranch dressing, and a topping of your choice.

 After cutting hard boiled eggs in half, take out the eggs yolks with a fork. Put the yolks in a bowl.

Then add the ranch dressing to the egg yolks, and mash with a fork until smooth.

 After mashing up the egg yolks, put a ziploc bag in a coffee cup and then add the egg yolk mixture. Putting the ziploc bag in the coffee cup helps the egg mixture go to the corner of the ziploc bag.

 Cut a hole in the corner of the bag and pipe the egg yolk into the egg white shells.

After piping the egg yolk into the empty egg white shells, top with your favorite topping and serve. Chocolate is ready to devour the deviled eggs. 

Yum!

Pandagrub made the LA Times!

Anybody read the food section? I know I do. My mom sent in a picture of the peppermint pinwheel cookies to the LA Times. The LA Times picked our photo to be shown in the print edition, it was in today's food section on page E3. The picture was also shown on the online edition. For the online edition picture click here. To get to our photo click #7.  You can also see a color version of this photo on this blog post.

The panda in the picture above is named: Special Panda. That is his  name because he was  my first panda that I got. My grandfather (Yeh Yeh) gave me this panda when I was a baby.

In case you can't get the print edition or read the article from the picture above, here's part of what it says:

"Holiday pinwheels"

This image comes to us from Helen Fong of Manhattan Beach, who made our holiday cookie recipe for peppermint pinwheels with her 9-year-old daughter, Mia. ( Mia has a food blog called PandaGrub.) 

A special thank you to Rene Lynch for putting pandagrub in the LA Times.

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.

Meatballs

This week on pandagrub we are making meatballs with another pandagrub viewer from New York City. The meatballs are made with the same recipe.

The panda in the picture above is named Blossom. Blossom has a identical twin sister named Plum who lives in New York City. Let's watch Blossom make her meatballs first. Blossom is soaking the sandwich bread in water. She is soaking the bread in water to make the meatballs soft.

 Here is Blossom sitting with some of the ingredients used to make the meatballs. Blossom is sitting next to minced garlic, raisins, and flat leaf parsley.

Here is Blossom with the meatball batter.

 Blossom is ready to put the meatballs in the oven. Make sure to roll the meatballs into balls a little bigger than a golf ball.

 After being baked at 325 degrees for 25 minutes, the meatballs are ready to be soaked in tomato sauce. Simmer the meatballs in tomato sauce for 30 minutes.

 Blossom has decided to make meatball sandwiches. Yum!

The panda in the picture above is Blossom's identical twin sister, Plum. Plum lives in New York City. In the picture above Plum is sitting with all the meatball ingredients.

 Here is a picture of Plum with the flat leaf parsley. The flat leaf parsley is also called Italian parsley.

Plum is so lucky she gets a whole plate of delicious meatballs to herself........ For the full meatball recipe click here.

Restaurant Review: Lunar

 This week on pandagrub we are doing our very first restaurant review! This restaurant review is going to be about Lunar, a Korean and Chinese restaurant. Lunar is in Irvine, California. The panda chosen for the restaurant review is Egg.

 The Lunar restaurant is a very clean, modern, and friendly place. (They didn't mind at all that Egg was sitting at the waiter's station.)

Here is Egg waiting to be served. Look at his hungry face............

 Look at Egg trying to catch a ride on the lazy susan. Hang on, Egg!

Here is a close up of the wall painting. The Lunar restaurant's walls are full of these beautiful paintings.

 Egg is now sitting on a silk chair that is fit for royalty. Yay, it's time to eat because the dishes are ready!

 The first dish is called yoo rin ki which is fried,crispy chicken with soy sauce and vegetables. The chicken was a little dry but still very crispy and good.

Egg is enjoying his feast. In front of Egg is sweet and sour pork. The plate is almost empty because everyone thought it was  delicious. The pork was very tender and crispy. We ordered this in both pork and beef.

The next dish is the gai lan, which is Chinese broccoli. This could have used a bit of oyster sauce and bit less corn starch.

Next is the dish that most Koreans in a Chinese restaurant wait for. This is the infamous ja jang mein which is noodles in black bean sauce. This version had a lot of seafood in it. Egg found the squid to be a little chewy.  Can you see the kim chee in the lower left hand corner?  That's how you know this is a Korean-Chinese restaurant!

This is a picture of part of my family and of course the newest member of this family - Egg! Egg said that he hopes to return to Lunar someday. For the full information about Lunar click here.

Egg is tired from a great meal and a full stomach ........ Time to go to bed.