A Date Night and Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

After our Halloween prep on Sunday night, Greg and I had a rare date night at Growlers Pourhouse.  I had a Living Social deal set to expire in about a week, so it was imperative that we get it spent!  I've been to Growlers once before with friends and we had a great time.  I knew Greg would dig it since they have a good beer menu and bar food.

There's my date!

In keeping with my mission to sample every pumpkin beer out there, I found out they had a pumpkin beer on tap, so I had that.  I can't remember what kind it was, but it was probably the second best one I've had this season, and it had cinnamon and sugar on the rim.  Sweet!

We decided to get an appetizer to start with since we needed to use up my Living Social deal.  Greg wanted the homemade chips and beer cheese dip.

They were delicious with sharp flavor and creamy texture, but ended up really filling me up! 

I ordered a pesto portobello sandwich (with red pepper and goat cheese) as my main course.  I loved the combination of flavors in this sandwich, and must make it sometime at home!  I only got through half because I was full from the chips and dip though!

I also had some pretty purple slaw on the side.

Greg had the rest of my sandwich and slaw for lunch the next day, so it all worked out fine.

After our date, we headed home and I realized I had to make something to bring to work for a Halloween event on Monday.  I wanted to make pumpkin cheesecake swirl brownies, but didn't have a recipe and wanted something kind of easy.  I decided to take a chance and use a boxed mix (Ghiradeli) for the brownies, and found a recipe for the pumpkin cheesecake part.

For the cheesecake I used this:  

Cheesecake Batter:

6 oz cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

2 T flour

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp each ground ginger and ground cloves

I preheated the oven to 350.
I mixed the brownies as directed on the package, then placed about 2/3 the batter in a greased pan.  Then poured the pumpkin cheesecake batter over it and smattered the rest of the brownie mixture on top.  I ran a knife back and forth to swirl, then baked it for about 40-45 minutes.

The recipe worked out great!

I think there were like 2 brownies left when it was over, I'll call them a hit.