S'mores after delectable Tillamook Sharp Cheddar and salami sticks

I think it’s common knowledge that great foods taste even better when served on a stick…corn dogs, popsicles, chicken satay, the list is endless!

Each week the Loaf Love Tour crew has a day or two off, but working or not, Tillamook Cheese never leaves our thoughts. This past “weekend” the team decided to head to an LA area beach and build a huge bonfire to roast hot dogs and toast marshmallows for s’mores. While we were enjoying our fire roasted snacks, TillaMaya reached into our stash of Tillamook Cheese cubes and decided to see what happens when you roast a Medium Cheddar cheese cube on a stick. The result? AMAZING ooey goodness in its purest form. The open bonfire and the melted cheese while sitting in the sand under a black night sky were simply awesome! We went on to roast Sharp Cheddar with salami and it was equally delicious! Do you have any ideas for our next bonfire? Let us know what to roast and we’ll let you know how it turned out.

By Susan N.

The LA Zoo is home to one special super yogurt fan

This year marked our first Loaf Love Tour visit to the Los Angeles Zoo. In typical LLT fashion, it was a hot sunny day and we saw lots of orange clad fans! I was asked by a zoo employee if we had visited other zoos and I said, “Yes, but every one is different and filled with awesome memories.” Los Angeles did not disappoint!

Unlike our lucky friends and family at home, some Tillamook products are harder to find in Southern California. The exciting news is that our Tillamook Low Fat Yogurt can now be purchased at area stores so we decided to treat our fans at the zoo to samples of our delicious Marionberry Yogurt and Oregon Strawberry Yogurt in addition to mounds of tasty cheese cubes!

This family couldn't decide whether to show off their yogurt or our Yum bus!

Of course our delicious berry yogurts were a huge hit, but we had a truly unexpected fan of these yummy treats. Near the end of the day a Zookeeper stopped by our yogurt sampling station to tell us that one of the gorillas had been very sick. He hadn’t been willing to eat anything and they were very worried about him. However, when they offered the gorilla our Tillamook Yogurt, he started eating right away and loved it! We were so touched by this that we left a small stockpile for our gorilla on the mend and hope this Tillamook Yogurt fan gets well soon.

Do any Tillamook products make you feel better when you’re sick? For me, it’s Marionberry Pie Ice Cream all the way. Yum!

By Susan N.

There are so many ways Tillamook Cheese brings people together. I know from having met you on the road that our cheese and ice cream have created awesome memories for fans all around the country! What you might not realize is that a love of our dairy products can actually help people fall in loaf! I am lucky enough to have been witness to an amazing Loaf Love Tour tale. You see, it is a little tough to find your soulmate while out on the road so we take comfort in yummy goodness like grilled cheese sandwiches, gooey plates of mac ‘n cheese, and of course a finish of Grandma’s Cake Batter Ice Cream. However, last year during the Loaf Love Tour, one of our beloved Brand Ambassadors found a soulmate to pair perfectly with her love of cheese!

During our time touring through Northern California in 2011, Andrea stopped to ask a nice young man for directions and less than a year later we have heard from her that she is engaged!  Keep in mind that Andrea is an Oregonian in her heart, but an Ohioan by birth. The chances of her running into and then falling in loaf with this young man can only be a result of karmac cheesiness! With this wonderful news a tour legend has been created and a hope that our love of Tillamook brings loaf to us all.

Did your love of Tillamook help you fall in loaf? Tell us about it!

By Susan N.

It seems like that in the blink of an eye, the three months we spent in Texas just flew by. Our first day in this amazing state brought snow (!) and the warmest welcome from people who showed us true southern hospitality – thanks Amarillo & Lubbock! The days whizzed by in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and we found ourselves braving our first ever Loaf Love Tour tornado. The cattle drive was pretty cool, too.

Austin showed off its food chops with a delicious taste of grilled cheese heaven as we ate our way around the city during Tillamook Grilled Cheese Week. Only to be followed by an equally as satisfying and oh-so-nom-nom Tillamook Burger Week in Houston. At our last stop here in San Antonio, we can’t help but think how great it is that our delicious award-winning cheese found its way into the recipes and kitchens of the awesome Texans we now consider part of our Tillamook Loaf Love family.

If you missed us this time around, pick-up some Tillamook, snack on that yumminess and hang in there until next year – we hope to see you then!

We loaf the Alamo!

Houston Burger Week! Yum!

Those are some big boots!

Hooray for Austin Grilled Cheese Week!

Everything's bigger in Texas! Look at this wooden nickel!

It's a Baby Loaf cattle drive!

By Susan N.

Our friends from Denver

This is my second year traveling with these awesome Baby Loaf Buses and while they often steal the show … our friendly Brand Ambassadors are some of the most memorable people you’ll ever meet!

One of my favorite stories from the 2011 Loaf Love Tour happened on our day off while in Northern California. We were checking out of hotel in Oakland, CA and all of our staff was dressed in their regular clothes (no awesomely orange Loaf Love t-shirts in sight) when @JamminJason was stopped by another hotel guest. She and her family had met Jason more than a month before at a grocery store over 350 miles away! She recognized him immediately, called her family over to say “hello” and wanted a full update on our travels. Jason remembered her as well and reminisced about the store where they had all met; this is no small feat considering the thousands of people Jason interacts with – often in a grocery store setting! What a small world!

Then just this last week I was at a Kroger store on one of our last  days in Houston and a nice family wandered over to our Baby Loaf Bus. I stopped to chat with them and the first thing said was, “we saw you guys last year in Denver!” Wow! It’s a whole year later, we’re in a different state and they remembered us?!

We’ve just arrived in San Antonio and the only thing I am thinking about is, “which of my old Loaf Love friends will I get to see again soon?” Stop by and see us! The cheese is just as yummy, the smiles just as big, and we’d love to hear what you’ve been up to.

See you around San Antonio!

Susan

Follow me on Twitter @SmilinSusan

By Susan N.

Loafy at the wedding in AZ

The Grilled Cheese Invitational in California

Emily and some fans

Utah fans with ice cream

The Baby Loaf bus visits the military in Denver

The 2011 Loaf Love Tour is wrapping up and while you’ll see us in the Northwest a few more times, we’re heading home for time with family, friends, and the land where all the yummy flavors of Tillamook yogurt, ice cream, and cheese can be found. (We know! We wish you could come, too!)

It seems like such a short time ago we were tossing and turning in bed with the excitement of leaving on this adventure the very next morning. In the last few days, our Loaf Love Tour family has spent hours talking about all the special places we’ve been and the people we’ve met. We want to say: THANK YOU!

I wish I could tell you about each and every awesomely cheesy memory, but there’s not enough time or enough words. Arizona: we remember your gorgeous sunsets and our very first Loafy-officiated wedding. In Southern California we remember the Grilled Cheese Invitational where thousands gathered to worship the ultimate in melted gooey goodness – yum! As we traveled north, our superfan Emily and her cheese backpack left a lasting smile on our faces. Our congratulations to our friends in Utah who finally hit the jackpot – Tillamook Ice Cream!! It made us as happy to find it there as it made you. And here in Denver we remember again the amazing military service men and women we had a chance to spread the loaf with all year long.

And yes, we remember your stories, too and we loafed hearing each and every one of them. You’d think life on the road would be lonely, but Tillamook makes new memories from old stories and families out of strangers.

So to our new found families, get the crackers ready; we’ll be back with our cheese again soon!

Susan, Loaf Love Tour Brand Manager

By Susan N.

The Tillamook Cheese Loaf Love Tour at the Danville 4th of July Parade!

There are so many opportunities to feel like a rock star while on the Loaf Love Tour, but the 4th of July Parade in Danville, CA had to be one of our highlights! We rose nice and early armed with 12,000 Tilla-Moos and gorgeous sunny skies. As soon as we arrived, we knew we were going to have a great time.
 
Our awesome VW Yum buses were in a staging area with helicopters, little league teams, local dignitaries, and, of course, lots of cheese-loving parade-goers decked out in their most patriotic gear. Once our buses got started on the route, there were seven of us toting portable coolers full of the World’s Best Medium Cheddar Cheese for the fans along the way. People were screaming for Tillamook Cheese and it energized me for our 2.5 mile trek. As I got started, I heard from a mom how great it was to get our all natural cheese as snacks rather than candy … as if I didn’t already feel great about being here – this made it even better!
 

Tillamook Cheese - made in the U.S.A.!

But the best moment of all was shortly after I refilled my cooler behind our Loafster convertible. The shoulder strap was tangled and I had to set it down to work it free. While I was stopped right in the middle of the parade route, both sides of the road started competing with screams of “cheese!” I cupped my hand to my ear and egged on the friendly competition. The screams went back and forth getting louder and louder.  I finally declared a winner by running over and handing out tons of Tilla-Moos. And because I’m a softie, I ran to the other side and brought them their own tasty cheese samples, too!
 

Loaf Love Tour Brand Ambassador Noelle with her cooler bag full of Tilla-Moos

Thank you Danville, CA for the awesome 4th of July memories!

By Susan N.