Hawaii Vacation Gifts by Double Brush-Hawaiian Gifts & Blog

Win a Trip to Hawaii with an Ocean View Grand Waikikian Hotel Suite

Hilo Hattie, the famous garment manufacturer and Hawaiian souvenir store chain is sponsoring a "Win a Trip to Hawaii" sweepstakes--but you have to hurry, this sweepstakes is pau (finished) at the end of this month!

 You could win the grand prize: A round-trip for two to Hawaii on United Airlines, 6 nights in an Ocean View One Bedroom Suite at Hilton's new Grand Waikikian Hotel, and a $250 gift certificate for Hawaiian fashions at Hilo Hattie.

Enter the Hilo Hattie "win a trip to Hawaii" sweepstakes here.

Limited to one entry per person per day. Sweepstakes must be submitted by December 31st, 2008. The winner will be chosen on January 14, 2009.

Check out our other Hawaiian sweepstakes listings.

New Hawaiian Candy Bouquets or Hawaii Chocolate Edible Arrangements

Since we started selling Hershey's kisses with macadamia nuts chocolate candy a few months ago, I had an idea to try and make a Hawaiian candy bouquet. I had seen the Hershey kisses chocolate candy turned into rose buds where two kisses are abutted back to back, then has a colored cellophane piece wrapped around it so it looks like a rose bud.

Although I saw many Hershey kisses rosebud candy bouquets online, I did a search for Hawaii candy bouquets or Hawaiian candy bouquets and nothing turned up! So of course I had to create a delicious Hawaii chocolate edible arrangement to fill that void.

I happened to have a stash of high quality vintage silk flower parts from the early eighties. (My sister used to design silk flower hair barrettes when it was a fad back in the day.) You can't even get these silk flower parts anymore as the majority of silk flower items (hair barrettes, leis, stems, etc.) already come assembled from China.

What I came up with is this:

We start with 2 Hershey kisses back to back, wrap the candies with clear plastic wrap, add a vintage high quality silk flower, secure it with a plastic flower calyx part, use a clean bamboo skewer to secure the candy kiss flower, and wrap the stem with green floral tape. There are quite a bit of steps involved to assemble each candy kiss blossom by hand and we only have a limited amount of our vintage flowers.

I also was able to assemble the small triangle packs of Mauna Loa macadamia nut snack packs in a similar fashion. It is featured along with Hershey kisses tropical candy flowers and assorted Mauna Loa chocolate candy bars in our "Chocolate Hawaiian Candy Bouquet Edible Arrangement by Mauna Loa" bouquet. This is a unique Hawaii bouquet gift that will satisfy the eyes as well as stomach:)

Our other bouquet (pictured at top) features one dozen Hawaiian flower Hershey's candy kisses. Both come in a Hawaiian porcelain coffee mug as a vase.

The Hershey kisses Hawaii chocolate flowers and macadamia nut flowers are also sold individually for unique Hawaiian party favors or original Hawaiian wedding favors.

Related blog posts:
Hershey's Kisses with macadamia nuts review

Hershey's Kisses Cookie Recipes

Win a Week Long Hawaiian Vacation to Maui

We found a new Hawaiian vacation sweepstakes to Maui sponsored Cold-Eeze. It is different from any other Hawaii sweepstake entries we have seen in the past.

In this contest you go to the Share Your Cold-Eeze Sweepstakes site, enter your contact information and email addresses for one to five other people. (Your playing partner will be contacted by Cold-EEZE with an email from you letting him or her know that you are inviting them to enter this sweepstakes as your partner.) The last and third step is to enter the Cold-EEZE winning phrase which is "Cold-EEZE is clinically proven to shorten your cold by nearly half."

Here's the rub, if you do win the Hawaiian vacation contest, you have to bring someone on that partner email list.

*Contest ends on February 28, 2009*

Hawaii Vacation Grand Prize:

7 day/6 night  trip for two (2) to Maui, Hawaii.

Hotel accommodations

Use of mid-size rental car

For more win a free trip to Hawaii opportunities, visit our Hawaii Sweepstakes blog category where we try to post a new and legitimate Hawaiian contest every Sunday.

Hershey's Kisses with Macadamia Nut Cookies Recipe-Kisses Cookie Recipes

My mother-in-law from Oahu was visiting us on the Big Island to celebrate Thanksgiving. She wanted me to stop at the Hawaii Mauna Loa Visitor's Center to buy some Hershey's Kisses with macadamia nuts candy to use in her holiday baking. She had a Hershey Kisses cookie recipe that she wanted to use for her Christmas cookies and thought the kisses with the macadamia nuts would be the best.

I told her we sell the Hershey's kisses with mac nut candy on our Hawaiian gifts website and would give her some. She was delighted that I had them because she said they always sell out when they go on sale at Long's on Oahu.

The following Hershey Kisses candy cookie recipe came directly from the Hershey's candy site where this candy chocolate kisses recipe was one of 71 published candy cookie recipes!

Double Chocolate KISSES Cookies Recipe

Ingredients: 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened 1 cup sugar 1 egg 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup milk 36 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates or HERSHEY'S HUGS Brand Candies 1 can (16 oz.) vanilla ready-to-spread frosting

Instructions:

1. Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt alternately with milk, beating until well blended. Cover; refrigerate dough about 1 hour or until firm enough to handle. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

2. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolate pieces.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Spread frosting onto cookies, leaving about 1/2-inch around outer edge unfrosted; place chocolate piece in center of each cookie. About 3 dozen cookies.