When the lights go out in the city

...we are thankful for a gas stove.

In the Northwest, we encounter some pretty rad wind and rain storms come late fall. The last of those beautiful leaves that were clinging to the trees and slowly making their way to the ground, to be thrown by children full of laughter, are pretty much gone. There's no making it real quick anywhere to see them one last time, it's winter's way of telling fall to beat feet. The bitter cold of winter is rearing its ugly head up and forcing us into layers upon layers and the warmest jackets and boots we can find.

With the wind storms also comes power outages. Where we live in, we are fortunate to have never truly lost power for more than a few minutes. Until today that is. We lost power in the morning and didn't get it back until the afternoon. I wasn't quite sure what to do at that point, my editing list was screaming at me. Since we were having a late and lazy Tuesday morning, with no school mind you, the kids asked for pumpkin pancakes. At that point, what other choice did I have? Pumpkin pancakes it is!

I love to let them help me cook in the kitchen. Of course it can be challenging, messy, and a patience tester, but I ensure the project we are working on will be one where those things are okay. Some jobs are just for mom though, ok? So, off to hunt for a good recipe I went, and found THIS ONE. My grandpa used to make me silver dollar pancakes when I was a kid, something about nice and small pancakes makes them a little more enjoyable to eat, especially when you can gobble down three of them!

I was intimidated at this recipe at first, but decided what the heck? I'll go for it! Now, it wouldn't be me if I didn't change the recipe up a bit, and since I wasn't willing to open another can of pumpkin to meet the 2 cups it called for, we used 1 ripe banana in its place with just under 1 1/2 c of pumpkin. We also added a dash of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and pumpkin spice chips. I also didn't have cake flour, so I replaced 2 tbs per cup of all purpose flour with 2 tbs cornstarch per cup for an appropriate substitute*. You'll see there were a few other minor changes, but you can see that below. They were insanely delicious and I don't even care for pancakes usually.

If you're interested, here is the whole recipe:

Banana Pumpkin Pancakes

• 3 cups Cake Flour*
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 2 Tablespoons Baking Powder
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1-1/2 cups Canned Pumpkin Puree
• 1 mashed ripe Banana
• 2 whole Eggs
• 3 teaspoons Vanilla
• 2-1/2 cups Milk (of choice)
• Dash of Allspice, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Pumpkin Pie Spice
• Pumpkin Spice chips (or any kind of chocolate chip)

In a large bowl, combine cake flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Stir together and set aside. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, banana, eggs, vanilla, spices, and milk. Slowly drizzle wet ingredients into dry ingredients, stirring gently with a spoon or whisk as you go. Batter should be somewhat smooth and pourable.

Pre-heat large skillet or griddle over medium-low to low heat (not pre-heating your pan will result in flat pancakes). Oil surface of pan and drop tablespoon-sized amounts of batter onto the pan (more if you want larger pancakes), and drop a few chips into each one. Wait a minute or so, then flip to the other side. Pancakes should be golden brown and set in the middle.

Enjoy!

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