Pumpkin Butter

One of my favorite fall flavors is pumpkin pie.  I am having a blast coming up with fun ways to get as much pumpkin flavor in my life as possible.

Pumpkin Butter:

1 15oz can of Pumpkin Puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/3 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Sugar
1Tbs Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ginger
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/8 tsp Cloves (ground)

I mixed everything together in a pot over medium high heat and let it come up to a boil, then turned it way down and let it cook together slowly, stirring often.  After about 30 minutes I took the pumpkin butter off of the heat and let cool so I could store it in the refrigerator to go with pancakes this week.

In an attempt to make mornings a little easier I decided to dedicate my Sunday to cooking ahead.  It's times like these I really miss affordable convenience food but I find comfort in the fact I know exactly what is going into my children's mouths.  For this weeks pancakes I chose Bob's Red Mill's pancake mix and followed the directions on the package plus I added 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.  I'm storing them in the refrigerator and plan to try different methods of reheating - I will report back on which we found to be most successful.