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While First We Brunch is part guidebook to the best places to eat in Victoria, but it's also all cookbook, with more than sixty recipes from the Brunch Capital of Canada. As befits this time of year, we're thrilled to feature the book's recipe for Pumpkin Pancakes from The Summit Restaurant. Bon appetit! 

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The Summit Restaurant Pumpkin Pancakes

Serves 4

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup finely chopped roasted chestnuts (or any other roasted nut)

1 tsp finely chopped orange zest

2 cups buttermilk

1/3 cup pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 large egg

11/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

11/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1/4 tsp pumpkin spice blend (or combine equal amounts of ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves)

Vegetable oil, for frying

Maple syrup, for serving

Orange marmalade, for serving

Icing sugar, for serving

This recipe puts me in mind of cool, sunny autumn mornings, but using canne …

Red Letter Day is the 49th Shelf series where Canadian authors tell me about a dream day where all pleasures are possible, thanks to a combination of extraordinary talent and mad cash.

Today that day is envisioned by Eliza Robertson, author of the upcoming short story collection, Wallflowers.

Here is the premise: It’s been a good year. Things are looking up. You’ve sold your book, some lucrative foreign rights, and won a few prizes. AND it’s your birthday. It’s time to treat yourself. For once, money is no object. It’s time to go live a little.

And so ...

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GM: You walk (or fly!) to your favourite bookstore (ER: Munro's in Victoria) and browse the shelves for three books you’ve been meaning to buy. What are they?

ER:

• Plainwater, by Anne Carson
• Bark: Stories, by Lorrie Moore
• Three Day Road, by Joseph Boyden

GM: Then you se …