Pumpkin Pancakes with Chocolate Chips

It's the Christmas season! What better way to welcome in the Holidays with pumpkin pancakes?  

I feel like pumpkin pancakes are appropriate for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The pumpkin makes perfect for Thanksgiving, and the cinnamon, ginger, and allspice make them a good fit for Christmas as well.

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips

This isn't the type of recipe that one usually makes in the start of spring.  Pumpkin recipes are usually made in fall.

I actually made this recipe in fall, but then I forgot my camera at home over the Christmas holidays.  I just got it back a couple of weeks ago when I saw my parents in Mexico.

Whole Grain Pumpkin Yeast Bread

I made bread again!  I recently made 100% whole wheat sandwich bread and 100% whole wheat bread.  Those may sound like the exact same recipe, but there were subtle differences.

I have made other yeast bread recipes in the past.  Over a year a go I made pumpkin cinnamon rolls,  raspberry rolls with lemon glaze, and regular cinnamon rolls.

Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Blossoms

The pumpkin season is upon us.  The last time I went to the grocery store I bough pumpkin yogurt.  I talked myself out of buying pumpkin cheesecake ice cream.

I haven't been to Trader Joe's this Fall yet.  I remember last year I really enjoyed their pumpkin spice cereal.  I also tried a chocolate covered pumpkin caramel.  It was delicious of course.

Chocolate Pumpkin Pie with Hazelnut Crumble

Is it still appropriate to make and eat pumpkin pies?  I think so.  I believe pumpkin is a winter vegetable.  I'm a big fan of pumpkin anyway, and I think it should be eaten more regularly.

I made this yummy pie with my sister.  It was her idea to use hazelnuts instead of pecans.  Impressively, my parents had both types of nuts.  After we made this pie, my sister pained Christmas trees and candy canes on my toe nails.   She's an artist!

Chai Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's election day in America.  I wanted to avoid the crowd so I work up early and arrived at the polls by 6:30 am.  I then preceded to wait in line for an hour.  

I'm grateful for the opportunity and privilege to vote.  I'm also really excited the election season is over.  

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was growing up, my family would often bake cookies on Sunday.  Occasionally we would made complicated cookies like iced sugar cookies, but usually we made simple bar cookies or drop cookies.

My favorite cookies we made were pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal chocolate chip bar cookies.  I now like nuts in my baked goods, but I preferred nut free cookies as a kid.

Jamaican Lentil Stew with Coconut

I achieved a feat of endurance last night.  In the span of a couple of hours, I ate four brownies and about a third of a cup of jelly beans.  I did this after eating dinner.

My belly was about to burst, and the thought of putting something in my mouth and chewing maked me ill.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Wikipedia states that Sweden is presumed to be the birthplace of the cinnamon roll.  The Swedish name is kanelbulle, which means cinnamon bun.

Through Wikipedia, I also learned that October fourth is promoted as cinnamon roll day in Sweden.  Swedish cinnamon rolls have cardamon, which gives then a unique taste.  It sounds fantastic.

Chocolate Pumpkin Pancakes

My roommate recently told me about a television program called Gran Hotel.  It is set in a fancy hotel in Spain.  It kind of reminds be of Downton Abbey.  

The time period seems the same, and there are simultaneous stories of the wealthy hotel guests and the servants.  

Pumpkin Waffles

Welcome to the season of all things pumpkin.  If you read food blogs like I do, you have probably seen an unending stream of pumpkin recipes.  By the time Thanksgiving comes, I won't want to even look at a pumpkin baked good let alone eat one.

I have a couple pumpkin recipes on my blog.  I have a recipe for pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin muffins.  My favorite pumpkin recipe has to be pumpkin cookies.  They are probably my favorite type of cookie, even though I have never posted a pumpkin cookie recipe.

Pumpkin Pancakes with Chocolate Chips

There is a gym at my work that offers classes during lunch and in the evening. I went today and did something new. When it comes to exercise, new is good. I get burned out easily.

The instructor had a deck of cards, and he assigned an exercise for each suite. The exercises were pushups, these crunches where you had to grab your ankles, burbes, and squats.

He removed all the numbers below four. We choose a card and did the number and exercise indicated by the card. It sounds easy, but it was pretty rough going by the end of the deck.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins with Cashews

It isn't the season for pumpkin yet, but because of canned pumpkin, I don't think we should limit ourselves to only eating pumpkin in fall.

Pumpkin is a great baking ingredient because it keeps the baked good moist.  It would be difficult to over bake and dry out these muffins.

This recipe does not indicate that I am ready for Fall.  Fall is my favorite season, but this summer has gone by too quickly.  I'm not ready to say goodbye to summer yet.  I have only gone to two barbecues, and I haven't even been to the beach.