Pumpkin Pancakes

I've just finished a stretch of several weekends playing gigs out of town. The last two weekends were with Donnybrook and the McNulty School of Irish Dance. These have been wonderful concerts, playing to audiences of 400-500 people.

Actually, the theme of this past weekend seemed to be 'the falling instruments'. Early in the concert, while singing (not playing an instrument), out of the corner of my eye I noticed my dulcimer sliding off the riser we were standing on. The leg of the stand must have slowly crept to the edge due to the vibrations of the music. I'm proud to say I caught it before it completely collapsed and didn't miss a single lyric in the song.

Before all that (during sound-check), Jonathan had a 'fiddle incident' when his fiddle fell off of the piano landing on the strings, thus, breaking all the strings in a dramatic display (sound included). Fortunately one of the stage guys had a violin at home to assist in string replacement.

While out-of-town gigs are always fun, I am looking forward to some 'home' time. In fact, it being autumn and all, I'm hoping to pick up some pumpkins and start cooking.

Here's my secret recipe for pumpkin pancakes. You've got to use fresh pumpkin, none of that canned (oompah-loompah colored) stuff. You have to cook the fresh pumpkin first, but well worth this extra step. This recipe yields a pretty moist flapjack, which is a matter of taste. You might want to use less pumpkin if you don't like it so wet, but I advise against it. It reduces the scrumptous factor significantly. Let me know if you try the recipe. Enjoy:

1C Flour
1/4 C Whole Wheat flour
3T Brown Sugar
1.5 t Baking Powder
1/4 t salt
Lots of ground cloves
A little nutmeg & Cinnamon

1/2 C Milk
1T Oil
1/2 t Vanilla
1 Egg
1 C Pumpkin

Mix dry ingredients well. fold in wet ingredients. Should be lumpy don't mix too much. Let it sit in the bowl for about ten minutes (I'm not sure why, but this helps...I think it gives the baking powder time to act). Get 'em on the griddle.