Our team had such a great time at The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen in San Francisco, giving free grilled cheese to our fans in the area! Thanks to everyone who visited, and to everyone who entered our #Cheeseaholic Instagram photo contest. The winner is this ultra-cheesy, grilled cheese photo from @ob_ces_sivetraveler!

We wish we could have chosen every photo to win! Here are a few more of our favorites:

Follow @Tillamook on Instagram and share the #LoafLove with us!

By Katie

Guess what, cheese fans: it’s National Grilled Cheese Day! In honor of this cheesiest, gooiest, meltiest of holidays, we’re putting all of our favorite fixins on sale for one day only. Hop over to the Tillamook Shop to get 20% off our favorite Grilled Cheese items. Think fast – the sale only lasts one day!

By Katie

What are you doing for Spring Break this year? If you’re thinking of taking a little vacation, you should take a drive to the Tillamook Cheese Factory!

• Drive over to Cape Meares for a view of the ocean. While you’re there, check out the lighthouse, see some huge Spruce Trees (seriously), or even walk down to the rocky beach.

• Stock up on Squeaky Cheese – it’s only available at the Cheese Factory!

• Swing by a surprising little gem in Tillamook – the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum! There you can learn a little about Tillamook County’s history and see over 35,000 historic artifacts gathered from Tillamook pioneers.

• Enjoy a free, self-guided tour where you can watch our cheese making and packaging operations and try free samples of Tillamook Cheese. Don’t forget to round it off with a scoop of Tillamook Ice Cream!

Before your trip, take a look at our special offers at the Cheese Factory – if you plan it right, you might get yourself some tasty opportunities (waffle sandwiches, anyone?). We hope you come to visit us at the Tillamook Cheese Factory!

By Katie

I can remember the first time I ever had a root beer float. I wondered  ”what is this creamy, delicious dream, combining my favorite beverage with my favorite dessert?” Well, as it turns out, you can make an adult version of this tasty treat! I called over some (all-too-willing) friends, grabbed some St. Patty’s style beers and plenty of Tillamook Ice Cream and conducted an experiment about what makes the best beer float!

First up: Tillamook Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Hard Cider
Independently, I love both of these ingrdients…but combined, they were amazing! With equal parts cider and ice cream, this tasted just like apple pie a la mode. The smooth cream brought out the tart, green apple flavor in the cider. It would be great for a summer treat (or a summer-dreaming treat) on a front porch. This one was my favorite of the bunch.

Next on the agenda: Tillamook Mountain Huckleberry Ice Cream with Red Ale
We thought that the hoppy flavor of a Red Ale would complement the sweet fruit in the ice cream, and we were right! Since the base of the ice cream is vanilla, it leveled out the hops to create a combo that tasted surprisingly like maple and nuts, with just a hint of fruit. It was a berry good beer float.

Finally: Tillamook Mudslide Ice Cream with Guinness Beer
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we decided to make a float with Ireland’s token beer: Guinness! We combined this beer with Tillamook Mudslide Ice Cream. Guinness is less carbonated, so the experience was a little smoother. I loved the Mudslide Ice Cream in this, especially because the chocolate bits tasted just a little salty! Unfortunately, most of the chocolate bits sunk to the bottom of the glass. This float was full of really rich flavors.

What kind of beer float would you make!? For more ideas (and some kid-friendly ones!), check out our favorite root beer float recipes.

By Katie

To help curd-loving fans across the country, and to support our partners at the Oregon Food Bank, we released the curds to our Online Shop for one day only on our 104th birthday! Squeaky Cheese Curds are highly perishable and start to lose their “squeak” after just a few days, so we’ve never been able to facilitate shipping them on a daily basis before. In order to ship these squeak-packed bags of curds, the Tillamook Marketing team took several days away from our regular jobs to personally hand-pack and ship orders from the Tillamook Cheese Factory! Here are some photos from our adventures in shipping Squeaky Cheese Curds.

Here come the curds! The curds we sent were taken fresh out of the vat at 6am (boy, was it early!) so we had time to pack all the boxes.

Good morning! We shipped brand-squeaking fresh curds with overnight shipping, to ensure optimal squeak when they arrived at their final destination.

Here are some empty boxes, waiting for their curds! Each box of curds was handpacked with two bags of curds, an ice pack, a packing slip, and lots of love.

Here’s our UPS truck, squeak-packed with our first day’s shipment of cheese curd orders.

We had a fun time packing all 700+ orders of cheese curds! Thanks again for supporting Tillamook and celebrating our 104th birthday. We hope you can visit us soon at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, where you can get cheese curds all year round.

Yours cheesefully,
The Squeaky Cheese Team

By Katie

Poutine is arguably my guiltiest, gooiest food pleasure. What is poutine, you ask? It’s a Canadian dish that consists of French fries, covered in cheese curds, drowned in gravy. Is this “poutine” you in a good mood yet? I’ve often sampled poutine from food carts in Portland, but had never thought to make it myself! This recipe is frighteningly easy to make – try it for an afternoon snack or appetizer.

Tips:
1. I thickened my sauce too much – a slightly runnier sauce will help cover all the fries
2. You can make it with vegetarian broth in the gravy (like I did!), but beef or chicken stock work just as well
3. Try adding herbs to the gravy for some extra flavor!

Ingredients
4 Russet potatoes, cut into short, thin strips
Ice and cold water for ice bath
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons Tillamook Salted Butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup beef or vegetable broth
2 cups Tillamook Squeaky Cheese Curds

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Wash and dry the potatoes. Leave the skins on and cut them into short, thin strips. Place the potato strips into a large bowl filled with ice water (tip: this removes some of the starch so your fries come out crispier!). Take the potatoes out of the water after 15 minutes and spread them on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 45 minutes until golden and crispy, turning occasionally.

While they bake, heat the butter and flour in a medium saucepan on low-medium heat. Once it starts to foam, gradually add broth (I used vegetable, but beef works too!), stirring with a wire whisk between additions. Once all the vegetable broth is in the saucepan, bring to a slow boil. Reduce the heat to a low and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook until the gravy has thickened and then remove from heat.

Once the French fries have cooked, remove them from the oven and place onto a serving plate. Top with Squeaky Cheese Curds and pour gravy over top. Serve warm and try not to stuff yourself!

By Katie

Do you want to try a tasty cheese you’ve never had before (like Vintage White Smoked Extra Sharp Cheddar – yum!)? Do you need a cutting board to serve your Tillamook Cheese right? Have you been eying a cheesy Tillamook t-shirt? Well, now’s the time to take action! Shop our cheesy sale on the Tillamook Shop with prices up to 25% off! The sale ends January 31.

By Katie

We’re happy to welcome a brand new cheddar to the Tillamook Family – Vintage White Sharp Cheddar! This cheddar is rich, full flavored, and naturally aged for 9 months to give you just the slightest bite. Give it a try at your next wine and cheese party, or in your next batch of mac and cheese!

Look for our new Vintage White Sharp Cheddar in stores soon, but buy it online now in the Tillamook Shop! In honor of Cheese Lover’s Day, enter to win a Big Cheese Gift Box by emailing fans@tillamook.com to tell us the first dish you’ll cook with this new cheese! Hurry and enter before January 31.*

*Official Rules

Email us at fans@tillamook.com to tell us the first dish you’ll make with this cheese!

By Katie

What’s the best part of all these rainy, cold, sometimes even snowy days? Soup, of course! I love making soups with a variety of seasonal ingredients and having leftovers that last for days. Here are a few tasty winter soup suggestions to make your next meal a little soupier.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
Apple and the 3 B’s (bacon, butter, and butternut squash!) make a hearty soup for dinner.

Flickr/notahipster (Creative Commons)

Beer & Cheese Soup
This recipe uses two of my favorite things: beer and cheese. The combination is seriously mouthwatering. Try it with your favorite local beer (we like to use beer from the Widmer Brothers) and our Special Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar.

Flickr/Bryan Esler (Creative Commons)

Tomato Soup
Tomato soup: the perfect companion for homemade grilled cheese. Any flavor of Tillamook Cheese will do!

Flickr/adactio (Creative Commons)

Spinach and Yogurt Soup
That’s right. Yogurt. In soup. Give it a try with Tillamook Naturally Plain Yogurt.

Flickr/Ewan M (Creative Commons)

Carrot Soup with Miso and Sesame
Stuck with a million carrots from your January-induced diet? Mash them up into soup!

Flickr/James Cohen (Creative Commons)

By Katie

Every week, I get a box of yummy, farm-fresh vegetables (courtesy of CSA) delivered to my doorstep. When figuring out what to do with them, I inevitably start thinking “how can I make this into a pizza?” (I eat a lot of pizza – like here and even here). This recipe hit the spot for a warm winter comfort food. Make it just like this recipe or with whatever winter veggies you have around.

Ingredients
1 yam or sweet potato
1 package pizza dough, room temperature
1 bunch of fresh basil (15-20 leaves)
½ cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
8 oz Tillamook Shredded Italian Blend Cheese
Tillamook Salted Butter
¼ yellow onion (preferably a Walla Walla onion)
½ red bell pepper
Garlic
Arugula (or any green leafy vegetable)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°F. Slice yams into ⅛ inch discs, and cover in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, and bake until just tender (about 10 minutes).

Spread room temperature pizza dough on a salted and oiled pizza stone or baking pan and poke holes with a fork so it doesn’t bubble up. Bake for 6 or 7 minutes, or until dough just starts to harden (this will help keep it from getting soggy later!). You can do this at the same time as the yams. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce for the pizza by blending basil, olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and a ½ cup of Shredded Italian Blend Cheese in a food processor.

Melt butter in a large frying pan. Slice onions and bell peppers, then cook slowly over medium heat with loosely chopped garlic until onions just start to brown, then set aside.

When pizza dough is ready (when it’s about half cooked), spread the sauce evenly on the top. Spread yams evenly (like you would with pepperoni). Spread arugula over this, then top with onions and bell peppers. Top it all off with a giant handful of your Shredded Italian Blend Cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let sit for 5 minutes before slicing.

By Katie