Pumpkin Pancakes With Pecans

*Recipe follows story

A wide mouthed mason jar filled to the top with pureed pumpkin was tormenting me. Every time I opened my parents refrigerator the massive jar stared back at me.  The big orange jar almost seemed lonely, like it was waiting for love to be bestowed upon it.  It was pushed to the back of the refrigerator and crammed into a corner, as though sentenced to a life of silence and being forgotten.  Whenever I’d take the container of milk out of the refrigerator, to lighten my giant cup of morning coffee, I could hear the mason jar saying save me.  The voice quiet and little and sweet.

One morning I saved it.  I rescued the pumpkin from what seemed as though would be a cruel and moldy death.  I asked my mother what she had been saving all of the pumpkin for (*my mother is addicted to making cranberry pumpkin bread) and she said, it’s just leftover from the holidays.  I said, what do you plan on doing with that rest of it?  She looked at me blankly.  I don’t know.  

I asked how she felt about homemade pumpkin pancakes and if it was something my dad and brother would try.  She said, I don’t see why not…

My brother was leaving early to volunteer at the hospital, so he’d miss pumpkin pancake Tuesday.  I knew there would be leftovers because there was an awful lot of pumpkin to use.  That jar of pumpkin was demanding life from me in the form of fluffy stacks of pancakes to be eaten instantly and all others to be frozen for future nomming.

Breakfast was peaceful and the pancakes looked so pretty, stacked like tall soldiers in the glass pyrex.

It was the first time I’d had a breakfast alone with my parents in a while.

Pecan Pumpkin Pancakes
*makes approximately 14 pancakes 

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. all spice
3 T. brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 c. pumpkin puree
2 T. plain yogurt 
1 1/2 c. low-fat milk
1 c. pecans (1/2 c. for batter and remainder for topping)
Maple syrup
Confectioners sugar 

-Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together
-Add egg and mix well
-Mix in pumpkin puree and yogurt
-Mix in milk until batter is smooth and thick
-Add pecans and mix
-Coat a griddle with non-stick cooking spray and let heat up over a medium flame
-Once griddle is hot, add batter (in 1/4 c. increments) and cook pancakes for about 3-4 minutes (until batter bubbles) and turn, cooking for another minute or 2.  Repeat spooning and cooking, until you’ve used all of your batter
-Plate and top with pecans, confectioners sugar and syrup

Nom your way to morning happiness