Sharing the recipes...

By request, here are recipes for the blondie brownies and the snickers cookies that I put in my treat boxes this christmas. The first recipe is from this awesome cookbook (local book) that I got from my friend who typed the recipes and organized the whole thing to raise funds for the Kamehameha Schools Children's Chorus. Can you believe that they sold over 6,000 of these books?? Anyway, her children used to be in the chorus, in fact, that year, their group was the group that sang on the soundtrack for the movie Lilo and Stitch! Anyway, I am sharing a shot of the cover of the cookbook as the drawings of the 3 children character was drawn by yours truly. I used to hand paint t-shirts for about ten years as a business but finally gave up when I discovered stamping and scrapping! Here's the recipe for Kamehameha Schools' Haole Brownies (blondie brownies - no chocolate but just as yummy!)
2 1/2 sticks butter (10 oz)
2 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
7 medium eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 level Tablespoons double-acting baking powder
1 1/2 cups chopped macadamia nuts (or nuts of your choice)
Cream together butter, sugars and salt. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix until creamy. Add flour and baking powder. Use a countertop electric mixer to mix on low for 30 seconds or use a wooden spoon to incorporate. (A hand-held mixer may not be powerful enough for this heavy batter). My own personal note: my hand mixer works just fine!
Scrape down sides of bowl and add nuts. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes of by spoon for 4 minutes. Spray two 13X9X2 inch pans with 2 seconds each using non-stick cooking spray.
Divide mixture evenly into pans. Place pans on the bottom oven rack and bake for 35 minutes at 400 degrees. My own personal note: my oven must be hot because the brownies are done in just 25 minutes. Be sure you check on the brownies when you start to smell the wonderful aroma because it will burn! I've burnt a pan and was super bummed!!
Cool completely before cutting and enjoy!! This recipe makes 2 pans so it is alot!!

The second recipe is for SNICKERS COOKIES and I found the recipe on cooks.com My sister made this last year and Nolan loved it so much, he asked me to make them this year. Candy isn't cheap anymore, so if it works better to buy the full size bars and cut them, it might cost less than the bag of minis.
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 (16 oz.) pkg. snickers bars, miniature size or full size bars, cut into pieces
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3 cups flour
2 eggs, beaten
Cream together sugar, brown sugar, butter and peanut butter. Add vanilla and eggs; mix. Add dry ingredients. Roll dough into balls and flatten. Add a mini snickers square in the middle of dough and gently wrap dough around candy. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 300 degrees for 12 - 18 minutes or until golden brown. The cookies come out pretty large. Cool on rack and store in air tight container (these are soft cookies).
Enjoy! Happy baking!