Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies at A Girl and a Glue Gun (Food Friday)

 

Today you can find the recipe for this glorious delight of a dessert

over at A Girl and a Glue Gun.

I am sharing these Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies 

as part of her Food Friday. 

Man is this exciting!

I am also giving quite a little ode' to the pumpkin.

You intrigued?

I should hope so.

Go on over. 

Say hi!

Make yourselves some brownies.

Have a glorious weekend eating brownies.

Gingersnap Cheesecake Bars

Cookies. Cheesecake. Cookies. Cheesecake.

How does one choose?

Oh pish posh, who needs to choose...let's have both.

The cookie part of this bar is one of my very favorite cookies. It is a soft gingersnap cookie. Okay it is really more like a molasses ginger cookie. The snap in the gingersnap is subjective. I have liked these cookies ever since my dear sweet college roommate made them for me.

Once I was married and I couldn't have her living with me at my disposal to make me cookies, I figured I should probably get the recipe and make them for myself.

I have been making them ever since.

I especially make them a lot once the holidays roll around. The gingeriness (totally a word) of this cookie reminds me so much of not only Fall, but also Christmas. So I figure it is fair game to make these cookies as much as I want between September and the end of December.

I also like to experiment with the recipe. By experiment, I mean adding the cookies into all my other favorite desserts.

In this case, these soft ginger cookies met up with my friend cheesecake.

I felt it was only right to introduce them.
 

Don't they seem like cozy friends already?

I tell you what, these are amazing. I was pretty much lacking in any self control around these Gingersnap Cheesecake Bars.

They made my day. Yes, dessert can totally do that.

There is scientific proof.

Okay, so maybe I made that whole scientific proof thing up, but dessert can make your day...

...you guys know what I am saying.

Go ahead punk...er...I mean Gingersnap Cheesecake Bar, make my day.

Enjoy! Happy Fall and happy gingeriness!

Gingersnap Cheesecake Bars

cookie:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon

cheesecake filling:
1 8oz package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and the sugar until fully combined. Then mix in the egg. Next, mix in the molasses.

In a separate smaller bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.

Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the bowl of the sugar butter mixture. Mix until completely combined.

Take a little more than half of the cookie dough and press it into the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish.

Press it firmly.

Take the cheesecake filling and spread it over the cookie crust in the pan.

With the remaining cookie dough, break apart small pieces and just randomly cover the top of the cheesecake mixture..

Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the middle is set.

Remove from oven, and let cool on a wire cooling rack. Once it has cooled completely.  Remove the Gingersnap Cheesecake Bars to the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

When ready, cut them up, serve them up, and wait for the accolades.

Thanks for reading!

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linking here:
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Gobble Grams: Thank Your Neighbor {Printables}

A few weeks ago, I shared the idea for spreading the thanks and giving out these Gobble Grams. I shared how to make the Acorn Treat. There was also a GIVEAWAY for $100 Visa Gift Card, thanks to Clorox and their campaign to prevent sickness during cold and flu season. You can still go enter.

Now that we are officially in November and just weeks away from Thanksgiving, it is the perfect time to spread the gratitude in your neighborhood by passing a long these Gobble Grams.

I made all of the Gobble Gram printables using PicMonkey. Seriously love that site.

Today I am sharing the printables for everything you need to put together your own Gobble Gram.

To spread the gratitude, first simply download the three Gobble Grams Printables.

Gobble Gram Printables 1
Gobble Gram Printables 2
Gobble Gram Printables 3

Print them off. Make a treat. Package everything up.

Then get ready to watch the gratitude spread. It will be fun to see all of the doors in your neighborhood look like this.

Let's spread the gratitude!

If you like this idea I would love for you to share it on 

Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, carrier pigeon, or smoke signal.

Thanks ever so much!

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linking here:
Sugar Bee Crafts, Six Sisters Stuff,
Liz Marie Blog,

Our Thanksgiving Mantle

I love Christmas. I really, really do. I love every wonderful thing about it.

However, I love, love, love Thanksgiving too. So most things Christmas are put on hold until after Thanksgiving is done. Don't get me wrong, there are a few Christmas things that show up now.

Some Christmas presents are in the works. Hubby has also put up the Christmas lights outside. Mostly because we have a very small window of good weather from November until...well, April.

Other than those few things and the occasional toy circling in the Christmas toy magazine, we don't rush to celebrate Christmas too soon making sure not to skip over Thanksgiving. The good news is this year, Thanksgiving is late, so I have lots of time to enjoy it. On the flip side that also means my decorations for Christmas are going to go up the day after Thanksgiving before I have even had a chance to digest all that turkey.

Oh well, right! That is what happens with back to back holiday wonderfulness.

I am not complaining. I sure do love this time of year. 

The day after Halloween, my Bat Garland and Black and White Halloween Mantle was put away and my Thanksgiving Mantle was put together.

Every single thing I used this year to decorate was from last year. Not a single newly painted, sewn, or crafted thing.

Say it ain't so.

I am not gonna lie, it was kind of grand just reusing what I had. I loved everything so much I didn't mind using it again.

The older three made these Framed Turkey Hand Prints a couple of years ago. I probably should make one for Bean. Fortunately he is too young to care that he is left out of the hand-turkey fun.

I have grown rather fond of using dry beans in decorating. I revamped my usage of them a tad. Normally I have them all in one big glass container. This year I divided them up between these sweet glass milk jars that I got from IKEA a few months back.

The little turkey thankful canvas is still holding strong. As are the spray painted turkey figures I got at the dollar store.

Spray paint makes so many things so much better.

Like the all the cheap plastic pumpkins from The Mart.

The simple Thankful Tree is back, also resting in a glass milk jar.

I hung the Thanksgiving Pennant Banner over the mantle this year instead of in front of it. I like it this way so much better.

I know I shouldn't need a reminder to think of what I am thankful for, but unfortunately I am often guilty of forgetting all the great things I have. I am enjoying having a mantle that reminds me every time I see it to be grateful. 

Here are the tutorial links for the projects shown on my mantle--

Framed Turkey Handprint

Thankful Tree

Thanksgiving Pennant Banner

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linking here:
Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom,
Sweet Bella Roos

A Creeper Minecraft Birthday Party

So my older two boys are a little obsessed with the game Minecraft.

Are you familiar with it? And by familiar with it, I mean you have heard the name, seen some weird blockhead type characters, and are vaguely aware there is building involved.

Other than that, yeah, I have no clue what this little game is all about.

So when Middle asked me to throw a Minecraft party, I was a little worried. I was also more than a little lost and WAY over my head.

So what does one do when they are lost, you hug a tree.

AKA you cling on to what you know for dear life.

What I know?

Minecraft has Creepers.

What are Creepers? Well that I don't know, but what I do know...

There are Creepers.

It became clear that Middle needed to have a Creeper Minecraft party.

There was a whole lot of green and black.

Creepers were everywhere.

These chair covers kind of made my day.

I downloaded a free Minecraft font. Then I used it as a stencil to create this birthday banner from felt and biased tape.

Hands down though, my very favorite part was this giant creeper face.
 

I used green, gray, and black scrapbook paper. Eight squares by eight squares. For all of you multiplication nuts...or your average fourth grader...that is 64 squares.

I spend a bit of time on that giant wall mural, but the good news is that I didn't really have to plan any games because all they wanted to do was actually play the game.

This banner was so easy and fun to make. Duck tape, paint sample cards, and vinyl.

When they weren't playing, they were eating.

 The boys made squares pizzas.

The square pizzas were followed by square Creeper cupcakes.

I continued the green theme with some green ice cream. P.S. I am officially obsessed with these teeny tiny wooden spoons.

Taking a break from the eating and Minecraft playing, we hopped on the Perler bandwagon and we made Creepers.

Ending a party is so sad. We try to make it a little less sad, by sending them home with a little bit of the party.

So even though I have no clue what Minecraft is all about, I think the party turned out pretty good.

After all, Middle had a good time and that was the goal.

Happy Birthday Middle.

Linking here:
Your Homebased Mom, Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom,
Sweet Bella Roos, Sugar Bee Crafts, Six Sisters Stuff
Liz Marie Blog