a series of unfortunate halloween pictures

many sensible americans out there believe that it is ridiculous to put costumes and clothes on animals; they are not wrong. in fact, i used to be one of them. however, dressing up dogs is jolly good fun, and i figure that if the dog isn't trying to eat the costume, then it isn't too miserable. 

unfortunately for my dogs, i love halloween! max always gets by without having to wear anything too horrible since he is the best one (and he already doesn't want to live with me). with ollie's comical ears, he has made a fantastic bat for both of his halloweens. and finally, poor, poor joni got a brand new bee costume. i thought it would be a hit, as it just velcroed around her, but something about the bee costume did not work for her. 

i set out to get a few cute halloween pictures of the wolf pack over here. all i really wanted was a good one of all three... 

these dutiful boys take halloween very seriously...notice who's missing.

bat dog here has the most ridiculous costume and was the happiest about having it on.

 joni said, "i don't know what y'all are doing, but i'm getting the hell out of here."

ollie tried to counsel her...

...to no avail.

at long last, a picture of all three, and somehow, there's a black plastic flower container in the background.

 the dark knight flew away after that...

...leaving me with this loyal subject (who had apparently failed to rescue that toy in the background).

the bee, it turned out, was more comfortable on human furniture than in the untamed wilderness of the back yard.

 i busted out their pumpkin shirts in a last ditch effort to get a decent picture of all these dogs:

this ham was happy to wear his...

...and the diva agreed to be photographed in hers.

 i gave up, though, when our photo shoot disintegrated into this:

 

 

 

once we went back inside, some little chihuahua was happy to pose for a few shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

we are a mess. anyway, happy halloween (now that it's the middle of november). at the rate i'm going, i'll be ringing in 2012 sometime next april.

 

pumpkin pancakes: a saturday morning adventure

my dad is, irrefutably, the greatest pancake maker on the planet. after every childhood sleepover, we could expect to wake up to an array of blueberry, strawberry, and chocolate chip pancakes. he became a legend among our friends. more recently, he began making these magical pumpkin pancakes from a recipe he found in the newspaper. he had a great phase of whipping up a batch of them almost every weekend throughout the fall and winter months. thanks to my dad, making pancakes was never something i needed to be able to do well.

unfortunately, since this fall began, no one has seemed very interested in making pumpkin pancakes for me. after a few weeks of grieving, i decided to attempt them myself. we've been unable to locate the newspaper recipe for a while, and none of the recipes i found online appealed to me, so here's what i threw together in a moment of inspiration this morning:

pumpkin pancakes


2 C. baking/pancake mix
1/2 C. plus 1 T. canned pumpkin
1 C. evaporated milk
1 egg
2 t. vanilla
2-3 T. brown sugar
2 t. baking powder
1 t. (plus a few sprinkles) cinnamon
1 t. (plus a few sprinkles) pumpkin pie spice
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. nutmeg

mix evaporated milk, egg, pumpkin, and vanilla in a medium sized mixing bowl with a whisk. add brown sugar, baking powder, and spices. mix thoroughly. add baking mix and blend with the whisk until just wet. the lumps in the batter are ok; if you mix it too much, your pancakes will be tough!

this batter is thick, so once it was on the griddle, bubbles do not rise to the top. 2-3 minutes per side on medium heat seemed to do the trick! i always use a 1/3 measuring cup to ladle pancake batter onto the griddle, but that is, of course, a matter of taste.

i will probably tweak this recipe in the weeks to come, but, all in all, i was satisfied with the finished product:

this cuddly winter chihuahua looks pleased as well.