PUMPKIN EMERGENCY!!

The Husband and I decided that we would have brinner tonight (breakfast for dinner) the first thing Tom said was "Hey, do you still have that pancake recipe?" I have a great recipe for almond pancakes, so all day I was preparing my mouth for the almond pancakes. When I got home from work I was nibbling on one of the pumpkin cupcakes I made chatting with Tom and I decided I would look for a pumpkin recipe online. I found one and I had everything that it called for except for pumpkin puree (a tiny minute detail). So Tom and I ran out to get the pumpkin puree. 


It sounds like a simple task. Zip out to the store and get pumpkin puree. It's the end of September, nearly October, surely all stores will have pumpkin puree! So we go right up the road to the store. Alas the shelves are empty. I grabbed the kid restocking and he got someone else over there and then the two of them stood and stared at the empty shelves. 


"Oh, there's a pumpkin shortage," Kid One said.
"Yeah, we're just not getting any in now. I'm not sure why, but for some reason there's a shortage of pumpkin," Kid Two said.


I stood there just blinking. There are pumpkins on every corner of my town, they can't seriously say there's a pumpkin shortage. Sure when I was at the giant shopping conglomerate last Friday I bought the last can of it there, but surely that was a fluke. So Tom and I left deciding to go to a store just down the road from that one, we convinced ourselves that the kids were just making excuses. Then the unthinkable, the second store was out too. The kids were right! Good Lord the kids were right! There was a pumpkin shortage! 


By this time I was beginning to panic. Tom seemed to sense my impending freak-out and stayed chipper and upbeat saying it was just because other crazy bakers like me were finding the pumpkin puree and stocking up. I admire the foresight of the crazy bakers that did stock up as I was clammy palmed on the way to the third store of the night. 


Luckily, thankfully, blessedly, the third store had the pumpkin. I could breathe easily again, I could laugh it off like it was nothing, but it wasn't nothing. It was nearly a disaster.


So I whipped up the pumpkin pancakes. I was nervous about them, as I am nervous about everything that I make, until I was making my plate and I heard the happy moans coming from my lovely husband as he ate the pancakes. Even then I always tell him I can't trust him because he's my husband and he has to tell me he loves everything I make, then I took my first bite with the warm maple syrup and the dusting of powdered sugar. It was lovely, truly lovely. The true essence of the fall. I will definitely be making these again, eagerly and often. 


In case you want to whip them up yourselves:




Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup milk
• 6 tablespoons pumpkin puree
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg and cloves in a medium bowl.
2. Whisk together the milk, pumpkin, butter and egg in a separate bowl. Fold this mixture into the dry ingredients.
3. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.
4. Pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake and cook approximately 3 minutes per side.
5. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

* Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart


**I made a slight alteration I added a dash of almond extract, just a tiny drop.

***Yes, I am aware that it is terrible presentation, however it was 8:00 and I was hungry. Too late and too hungry to care but so much about how pretty it was.