It's Pumpkin Day at our house!

(Get ready - it's a long one)

First off, let me wish everyone a Happy All Saint's Day!

While the rest of the US and other countries celebrate Halloween, it turned out to be pumpkin day at our household. Once the boys were up, we made Pumpkin pancakes!


I adapted these from Alton Brown's Instant Pancake Mix:

Ingredients

• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (check expiration date first)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Directions

Combine all of the ingredients in a lidded container. Shake to mix. Use the mix within 3 months.

"INSTANT" PANCAKES:

• 2 eggs, separated
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 cups "Instant" Pancake Mix, recipe above
• 1 can of pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
• 1.5 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 TB pumpkin pie spice (or 1 tsp allspice, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg*)
  

Whisk together the egg whites and the buttermilk in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the melted butter.

Combine the buttermilk mixture with the egg yolk mixture in a large mixing bowl and whisk together until thoroughly combined. Pour the liquid ingredients on top of the pancake mix. Using a whisk, mix the batter just enough to bring it together. Don't try to work all the lumps out.

"Walk away - just walk away"- AB (seriously, at this point, just let the batter rest for about 10 min while you heat the pan, etc.

We do 1/3 C dollops onto the non-stick griddle, wait til the pancake is dull, and bubbles are formed around the edges, flip, cook and serve immediate. This usually gets us more than the original 12 pancakes, enough for all of us and a few leftover for snacking later. Serve with warm maple syrup!

*a word about nutmeg. I grew up on spice by the jar, and never knew things really did taste better when you ground them from fresh. Get nutmeg berries and use a grating plane to freshly great nutmeg for your dishes - it's like the difference between wood pulp and wonderful flavor - it does make a big difference.

Dinner was a Jack-o-lantern pizza pie from Papa Murphy's (borrowing photo from their site here)

How to carve a pumpkin with power tools!
Our little guy is all about Domo right now, so Dad thought it'd be a great idea to carve a Jack-o-Domo. We found a pattern through Think Geek, and we got to work.

(but make sure you make really icky faces pulling out the pumpkin guts!)

Then - set the man on the gourd with some power tools! Let the surgery begin!


It's ALIVE! (sort of?)


Then...Connor's best friend moved back into town yesterday, and we went on a candy hunt with their family and here are the boys - Dread Pirate Aiden, Luke Potter, and Connor-won Kenobi