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What's my favorite part of any meal? Dessert! Chocolate chip cookies, cheesecake, cupcakes-I don't discriminate-I love them all. AmazonFresh feeds my sweet tooth by delivering fresh baked treats such as Always Room for Dessert cupcakes and cookies right to my doorstep. These are baked in a small, local bakery by a woman named Melissa Karpen, who is just like her products-amazing.

Melissa has two part time employees, but for the most part acts as a one woman show in her Totem Lake facility. She applies real ingredients combined with family bake tips and a passion for baking into each batch of fresh baked cookies and deliciously frosted cake. Melissa comments, "After tasting many mediocre and not-so-great baked goods at local coffee shops, I saw a need for locally baked goods that use real ingredients: real butter, eggs, sugar -- all the things that make your favorite desserts so yummy."

As a teenager, Melissa began baking alongside her mother and two aunts. "I watched them and listened to them at family gatherings, and still come back to some of those early recipes they taught me." Becoming a baker was a dream that turned into a reality two years ago.

Along with the classic chocolate chip cookie and vanilla cupcake, Always Room for Dessert offers a unique variety of flavors such as coconut, red velvet and espresso flavored cupcakes. Our top seller (Melissa's personal favorite) is the Coconut Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

So as you browse the aisles and fill your cart with items for breakfast, lunch, and dinner-remember that there's Always Room for Dessert!

The sun and warm weather are finally here! OK, so maybe it's not quite as warm as the part of Hawaii where I grew up, but I figure after another Seattle winter beggars can't be choosers. At any rate, while my mind wanders back to the "aina" (Hawaiian for land or earth, usually referring specifically to the Hawaiian Islands) I thought I'd share a few of my favorite Hawaiian style products that we currently carry on AmazonFresh.

The first is King's Hawaiian sweet bread. Originating in Hilo, Hawaii during the 50's, founder Robert Taira started with a recipe using butter, French yeasts, and several different type of flours to create a unique bread with a distinctive light and sweet flavor. This island institution was later moved to its namesake on King's Street in Honolulu during the 60's, where it quickly became a local favorite. After continued success in both the local and tourist markets, King's Hawaiian Bakery opened a site in California, expanding their list of products and making the distinct sweet bread widely available. Today, most of the products that you see on shelves are made in their new facility in Torrance, California, but the taste is still enough to bring back childhood memories for this kid from Hawaii. While there are many ways to enjoy the classic 16 oz round loaf, my favorite continues to be simply lightly toasting a slice and eating it with butter while it's still warm.

A quick word on the frozen nature of the bread. Many baking companies that do not have local facilities ship their products frozen, and they are then thawed at the local store before being sold. This helps lengthen the lifetime of the product and helps keeps it as fresh as possible during the time it took to get from the bakery to you. I have tried the 16 oz bread myself, and can honestly say that I wouldn't have been able to tell you it had ever been frozen.

The next product I'd like to talk about is even closer to home. You see, my father worked at a credit union that supported the sugar plantation in Waialua, so I was aware of the impact that the closure of the plantations had on the local economy. Imagine how happy I was when I learned that someone had created a soda company there on the North Shore of Oahu. Founded in 2003, Waialua Soda Works uses traditional glass bottles and only pure cane sugar in their products. They also try their best to use local Hawaiian ingredients, which hits a soft spot for me. Originally available mostly at restaurants and hotels in Hawaii, they have slowly begun reaching out to customers beyond the islands with their distinctive pineapple soda and other flavors.

Finally, we have the Kona Brewing Company. While I was a kid, I spent some time with my cousins on the Big Island of Hawaii, and we'd usually fly into the small local airport there in Kona. I think one of these days I'll have to pay a visit to the pub and brewery that was built there in the mid 90's. Today, Kona Brewing's flagship beers are available outside of the islands in markets in the United States and Japan. If you decide to enjoy a bottle of the Fire Rock Pale Ale or Longboard Island Lager, be sure to take a quick look under the bottlecap. Each one has a word from Hawaiian pidgin English along with a rough translation of the word in American English. It may not be of much help in talking to some of the locals (including most of my family), but it's definitely a fun little bonus.

Until next time, mahalo and enjoy the sun!

Dave's Killer Bread is a local product baked with organic ingredients and whole grains. While consumers crave the healthy, fresh baked taste--they're also drawn to the man behind the bread.

James Dahl, Dave's father and founder of NatureBake, believed in baking healthy bread the old fashioned way. As a child, Dave looked up to his father and couldn't wait to be old enough to join him, his mother and older brother in the kitchen of their family business.

Unfortunately, while struggling with his identity as a teenager, Dave fell into a life of crime that swayed him from following in his father's footsteps. After hitting rock bottom in prison, Dave decided to be proactive in turning his life around.

He began researching new bread techniques and concepts, forwarding them to his brother, Glen, who had taken over the family bakery after their father passed away. Dave was ready to carry on his father's legacy alongside his brother and nephew, and spent his first two years out of prison putting his research and creativity into the business. According to Dave, "Once I began to prove myself and my ideas, other people started coming on board".

Today Dave's breads are nutritious, tasty, and represent a positive change in technique and life. The number one best seller is Dave's Good Seed Bread, which is certified organic and packed with fiber, Omega 3's, and whole grains. You can find this as well as other Dave's Killer Breads right here on AmazonFresh!

I'm not a beer drinker which makes St. Patrick's Day a lonesome holiday for me. I'm "that" person...the one who orders wine when we're out on March 17th. To avoid the stares and comments, I've devised a new plan-- I stay at home and have some friends over for a great meal with wine, beer (for "those" people) and some Kerrygold Cheese. Produced in Ireland, the creators of Kerrygold get their milk from a COOP of local farmers to make their line of cheeses and butter. I know that I normally rave about great cheeses and their flavor profiles but let me take a moment to talk about Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter; this butter is truly fantastic. My first experience with this butter was 2 years ago at the Pike Place Cheese Festival--a representative of Kerrygold smothered a tiny piece of bread in this butter. It was hot day (for Seattle) which allowed the butter to turn into the consistency of pudding, tasting sweet and luxurious with a slightly salty finish. I make it a tradition to take it out of the fridge (or freezer, where I often put my butter) to let it reach room temperature. For my meal, I heat Essential Bakery's Potato Rolls at 300 degrees for 10 minutes and serve them slathered with the butter. Most often, the butter runs out before the bread does.

As for their cheeses, I particularly enjoy the Dubliner which is similar to Beecher's Flagship Cheese; it's considered a part of the Cheddar family with a nutty and slightly sweet taste. Although most would say it goes well with Guinness, I actually like to pair mine with Duck Pond's Cabernet Sauvignon. However, my favorite way to enjoy Dubliner is to mix it into a homemade macaroni and cheese. If you're in a hurry, I would recommend using Dubliner in a grilled cheese sandwich. I serve the macaroni and cheese as a side to a rack of lamb (not traditional, I know, but I'll use any excuse I can to eat lamb) along with a mixed green salad dressed in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, twist of lemon, salt and pepper.

Finally, we come to dessert. Instead of serving a soft cheese as an appetizer or with my main course, I like to present Blarney Castle for dessert with a side of fruit (green grapes, Jazz apple slices), honey, Anjou Bakery's Fruit Nut Crostini and a handful of almonds. Blarney Castle is a softer cheese, comparable to a young Gouda with a rich, velvety flavor. This cheese goes nicely with a crisp white but if I serve cheese for dessert, I like to pair it with Columbia Winery Gewurtztraminer, which is a sweeter wine that has a fruity palate.

There you have it, St Patty's Day re-invented. Bar food and green beer replaced with authentic Irish cheese enjoyed with good friends and even better wines.

I love the weekends-- not just because I don't have to work or because I don't have to wake up to a blaring alarm, but because I can take time to truly enjoy food. Silly, right? Well, not for me. I relish the idea of having a 5 course dinner for 3 hours or to enjoy lunch out in a restaurant without having to tell my server that "I'm on my lunch hour..." However, as much as I like going out to eat, I love staying in and nothing beats the simplicity of making a really good breakfast. As much as I love a traditional breakfast of eggs, toast and bacon (and for anyone who knows me, there is no such thing as a day without bacon), the heaviness of that meal leaves me feeling saturated the entire day...perhaps, that is the smell of bacon soaked in but still the same feeling. I want something that is lighter, but satisfies my craving for really good ingredients.

So I make breakfast the way I imagine they do at the high-end European hotels (I completely made that up, I've never been to Europe but it sounds probable)...I start with my favorite coffee, which is Peet's Garuda Blend in the whole beans. I like the idea of grinding the beans right before I brew a cup of coffee; it makes the entire experience seem so much more authentic. From there, I have 2 choices, a French press or using my coffee maker. I obviously go with the French Press (that only makes my breakfast that much more European, right?). Being a Seattlite entitles us to some snobbery with our coffee and I think Peet's makes the cut as an artisan coffee; they roast their coffee beans in small batches when we order it and send it to us within 48 hours. The Garuda Blend happens to be my favorite because it is sweeter with a nutty and earthy finish.

Next, I put out Rouge et Noir's Breakfast Cheese, so that it has time to soften. I normally recommend an hour, so you'll want to do that when you wake up. Breakfast cheese was the first cheese created by the Marin Cheese company back in 1865 and is truly made to be eaten at breakfast. It is a creamy cheese with a buttery finish-- similar to Brie. I love my creamy cheeses spread on top of a good, crusty bread so I take Essential Bakery's Columbia Loaf, and slice it into thin pieces (crostini-esque) and pop it into the oven (broil on low until they're golden). I like to set out jam (my favorite, St. Dalfour's Royal Fig Preserve) to spread on top and a side of seasonal fruit (so very hotel-esque).

After all my hard work, I can now sit down and enjoy breakfast-- great coffee, superb cheese and artisan bread. I take my time and read the paper...and yes, I'll eat the entire round of cheese. What better way to start off the weekend?

Have you ever wondered why you can't order fresh artisan bread for pre-dawn delivery? Vendor delivery times clashed with our pre-dawn service hours creating a hurdle for us to offer fresh baked bread to our pre-dawn customers. Because we could not guarantee that the artisan bread received by our pre-dawn customers would be high quality and fresh, we took away their option to purchase it.

I'm excited to announce that Essential Baking Company has alleviated this issue by offering a more flexible delivery schedule that allows us to deliver fresh baked bread to our pre-dawn customers. Essential Baking Company's hand-crafted artisan breads are baked with the finest organic ingredients and can now be delivered to your doorstep morning, noon, or night!

Whether it's dipped in my soup, soaking up pasta sauce, or smeared with a light coat of butter--fresh artisan bread is a must have with my dinner. My favorite is the Essential Baking Company Fremont Sour White Loaf. This is one of Essential Baking's most popular loaves, as well as a key ingredient to my family's ritual Monday night pasta dinners. We can eat a lot of bread! But on those rare nights that we have leftover bread, we want to keep it as crispy and fresh as the first night we enjoyed it. Artisan breads are made with less preservatives and more natural ingredients than packaged commercial breads, which can allow them to go stale more quickly. Below are some helpful tips I've found that help fresh bread live another day--or 90!

Bread box: Fresh bread should be stored tightly closed within its original packaging at room temperature--preferably inside a bread box. Bread boxes maintain good air circulation and prevent high moisture levels which can cause bread to mold.

Refresh it in the oven: Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly sprinkle water over the loaf of bread, wrap it in foil, and place in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Freeze it: If trying to preserve artisan bread, it's better to freeze it than to refrigerate it. While refrigeration slows down mold growth, it also causes bread to go stale more quickly. To freeze bread, wrap the loaf in foil or freezer bags (for up three months). When ready to eat, thaw bread at room temperature for 2-3 hours then place in the oven either on a cookie sheet or straight on the rack (unwrapped) at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. If you're in a rush and don't have time to let your bread thaw, the more speedy alternative is to wrap the load in foil and place it directly in the oven for about 20-35 minutes.