To celebrate National Burger Month, we’ll be sharing burger recipes from some of our favorite Texas friends! This recipe comes from Monica’s blog, Lick the Bowl Good.

Overview
When we go out for burgers, we like simple, fuss-free burgers with a lot of flavor. Of course I like fancy burgers with a lot of toppings, but I have a problem paying $20 for a burger. When we crave burgers and I don’t want to make them at home we go to Top Notch in Austin, Texas for a flame-grilled burger. Their onion rings are the best! That place really is a hole-in-the-wall and it’s decor is stuck in the 1970′s but that’s part of the appeal, it’s consistently good and we’ve been going there for years.

But this post is about my homemade burger and Tillamook Sliced Cheddar. We’ve been buying Tillamook Cheddar for years now and it’s the only cheese in our fridge so I was excited to participate in this Grillabration.

Ingredients
Ground beef (85/15)
Salt
Pepper
4 garlic cloves
Tillamook Medium Cheddar slices
Sliced bacon
Tomato
Lettuce
Fried egg
Crostini bun

Preparation
For the burger itself, I seasoned the ground beef (85/15) with salt, pepper, and 4 cloves of chopped fresh garlic. I formed them into ⅓ pound patties then cooked them in bacon grease. I topped them with a slice of Tillamook Medium Cheddar, 2 bacon slices, green leaf lettuce, tomato, and a fried egg on a toasted crostini bun. The only thing that could have made this better was a little pesto mayo. This burger was messy and huge but it was so good!

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By Tillamook

To celebrate National Burger Month, we’ll be sharing burger recipes from some of our favorite Texas friends! This recipe comes from Kristi Reddell’s blog, Moms Confession.

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 20 mins

Ingredients
1 lb hamburger meat
3 slices Tillamook Sliced Medium Cheddar Cheese
1 pack ranch dip mix
2 tablespoons Slap Ya Mama Seasoning (Cajun seasoning works too)
2 tablespoons worscheshire sauce
¼ cup real bacon bit pieces

Preparation
1. Mix by hand and form into patties
2. Cook on outdoor or indoor grill until well done

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By Tillamook

Are you ready to take a bite out of National Hamburger month? Come celebrate this scrumptious occasion with us at your local grocery for our second Golden Ticket event!

The hamburger is indeed quite the cause for celebration. Imagine a warm day in May and you just sat down to enjoy a delicious, juicy hamburger right off the grill. The bun has been perfectly toasted with a thin layer of rich Tillamook Butter and topping the patty is a perfectly melted slice of award winning Tillamook Medium Cheddar. Or if you’d like to add a little spice to your life you could also decorate your hamburger with some of our Pepper Jack Cheese! Those sweet peppers and jalapeños might be the perfect kick to make your hamburger extra spectacular. But, don’t let us tell you what to do, pick out your favorite loaf and make your very own hamburger!

Want to win a free loaf for that hamburger? On May 18th at select stores in Sacramento and San Antonio, we’ll be hiding tickets every hour around various items related to hamburgers. If you are the lucky winner who finds one of the tickets in store you may redeem a coupon for a free loaf of any Tillamook Cheese your heart desires! However, that’s the just the beginning! If you find a golden ticket you will also be entered to win a year’s supply of Tillamook Cheese! Imagine all the cheesy creations that you could make with a years’ supply of cheese!

If you want a slice of all this cheesiness, check the Loaf Love Tour schedule to find out which store is nearest to you on this special day. We look forward to see you then!

Post by Elisa of the West Team!

By Tillamook

The three finalists in our 3rd annual Tillamook Cheese Factory Grilled Cheese Contest cook-off competed last Saturday, April 27 at the Cheese Factory to determine who makes the best darned Tillamook Grilled Cheese sandwich on the planet. From a field of 90 entries, narrowed to seven semi-finalists, these three grilled cheese lovin’ finalists did their best to impress six judges to take the Grand Prize Winner title. And impress they did with three very different, unique, and cheesy recipes.

Colleen Bill of Post Falls, Idaho brought her Grilled Stromboli, with lots of Tillamook Shredded Italian Blend Cheese and Vintage White Smoked Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese and was our 2nd runner up. Donna Beck of Bonney Lake, WA competed with her Cheddar and Ham with Spiced Apple Bacon Compote and Maple Butter, a slightly sweet and spicy delight with our Sharp Cheddar. Donna went home with 24 pounds of cheese and a goodie basket as our 1st runner up. But at the end of the day, the creator of the unique and savory Spicy Turkey Cranberry Grilled Cheese walked away with the $500 Grand Prize, along with a gift basket chock-full of Tillamook goodies and bragging rights for the best Tillamook Grilled Cheese. Karla Pollich of Portland, OR, packed her sandwich with thick slices of Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar and Tillamook Swiss, then grilled it up on sourdough bread with herbed Turkey, bacon and a cranberry jalapeno jelly. Karla’s sandwich will be featured at the Creamery Café at the Cheese Factory this week so come on out and give it a try!

Our visitors also got into the act by sampling all three of the contestant’s sandwiches and voting with their applause for the Audience Favorite. This year the voting was closer than ever, with our judges declaring a three-way tie! All three contestants took home coupons for Tillamook Cheese or Ice Cream.

Join us next year for the 4th Annual Contest, and thanks for celebrating National Grilled Cheese month with us this April!

By Susan P.

The beauty of quiche is that you can make almost any flavor. Do you like bacon? Add it. Do you like spinach? Great, add that too. Once you know what ingredients you’re using, the only real question is, what cheese are you going to pile into your delicious quiche?

In an experiment to find out which Tillamook Cheese goes best with onion and leek quiche, I headed to the store and purchased both Tillamook Swiss Cheese and Shredded Tillamook Sharp Cheddar. I divided the recipe below in half and used Swiss in one and sharp cheddar in the other.

Placing two quiche on everyone’s plate, my friends were asked to pick their favorite. That’s when disaster struck. No one was willing to pick a favorite. It turns out both Swiss and Sharp Cheddar are excellent in quiche. I walked away from this experience learning that whatever Tillamook Cheese is in your fridge, it can be used in a quiche. My next experiment will be with bacon and Tillamook Smoked Medium Cheddar. I have a filling it will be a hit.

Ingredients
1 box frozen puff pastry
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
½ yellow onion
1 leek
6 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup of your favorite grated Tillamook Cheese
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
6 tablespoons melted Salted Tillamook Butter

Preparation
Let the puff pastry defrost and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thinly chop both the onion and the leek then add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a sauté pan and cook the onion and leek over medium low heat until translucent (5-10 minutes). Let the ingredients cool.

While the onions and leeks are cooking, combine eggs, cream, Tillamook Cheese, chopped parsley, salt, and pepper. After, stir in the cooked leeks and onions and set aside.

Carefully remove one sheet of puff pastry and place on a cutting board. Cover the puff pastry with melted butter using a brush and add another puff pastry onto of the butter. Repeat until you have 4 layers covered with butter.

Cut the puff pastry into squares slightly larger than your circular tins. We used mini muffin tins with a 2 inch diameter and cut our pastry squares to 2¾ inches. You want your puff pastry to be able to line the wall of your tin.

Fill your pastry cups about ⅔ of the way to the top and place in the oven for about 12 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!

By Kelly

In honor of National Grilled Cheese Month, on April 12, (National Grilled Cheese Day) Tillamook celebrated by having a golden ticket surprise at selected grocery stores in Los Angeles, CA, and Dallas, TX. Now how cheestastic is that?! Every hour Golden Tickets were hidden next to items that matched the theme of a grilled cheese sandwich. Lucky participants who found the ticket redeemed their Golden Ticket at the Loaf Love Tour kiosk to claim their prize. Each winner received a coupon for a free 2 lb baby loaf of their choice! To make the event extra special, their ticket was put into a drawing with the rest of the other tickets TO WIN A YEAR’S WORTH OF TILAMOOK CHEESE! YUM! Below are some fun photos from our Golden Ticket Giveaway.

Don’t forget the bread! A must have to make a tasty grilled cheese!

Can you think of all the places a Golden Ticket could have been hiding?

Here are some cheesy hints!

One of our first winners comes to the kiosk to get his free coupon for a 2lb Baby Loaf!

Participants had a lot of fun going through the aisles trying to find one of our Golden Tickets. After speaking with many, almost everyone decided to have grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner that night! There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being able to bring a Baby Loaf of cheese to one of our Tillafans.

You can join in on all of our fun by visiting us on Loaf Love Tour. Check the schedule – we may be coming to your city! Check out my cheesy adventures by following me on twitter @peppercornypaku. See you soon!

-Pakou

By Tillamook

After being on the road for almost a month and a half already, it’s easy to start missing home a little bit! My cheesy family and I always get together once a week for a “family dinner” where we all make something to contribute. These last couple weeks have been a lot of fun with everyone cooking up recipes that make them think of home!

Potato + Broccoli + Onions + Cheese = Yum!
When Tillatastic Ash is missing her hometown of Walla Walla, WA she whips up a perfect recipe to make her feel at home again! Her cheesy, baked Idaho potato, broccoli, and Walla Walla sweet onion dish is quick to make and leaves the belly feeling happy!

Cheese and Crackers
If you’re wondering how I spend my Friday nights at home, it’s usually sitting around a table with friends playing games and snacking on cheese and crackers! My favorite combination is with an array of crackers to choose from and the 3 Year Aged Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar. The cheese is so decadently delicious, I usually just end up using the crackers as a vehicle for the cheese to get in my mouth!

Gluten-Free Pasta
Although ShellBe Sharp can’t have gluten anymore, that hasn’t stopped her from making delicious gluten-free meals that even gluten lovers like PepperJack Matt enjoy! Her favorite dish to make when away from home includes gluten-free brown rice pasta, a little of this, a little of that, and of course some Tillamook Cheese! Her cheese of choice is usually the Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar! To ShellBe Sharp this colorful dish reminds her of Fall in Portland, OR when the leaves are changing colors and the weather starts to get a little cooler.

Grilled Salmon with Butter, Rosemary, and Garlic
One of the perks of spending my Spring in Texas has been the 70+ degree weather on a regular basis! If I were at home this time of the year, I know I would not be uncovering my BBQ for at least another couple months! During one of our “family dinners” we grilled up some salmon with Tillamook Salted Butter, a little salt and pepper, garlic, and some rosemary! It was juicy and scrumptious and reminded me of warm and sunny summers in the NW!

Waffles
Food carts have really come into their own over the past few years in the NW, specifically in Portland. One of my favorite food carts to visit is Flavour Spot. They have several cheesy waffles featuring our very own Tillamook Cheese, but one of my favorites is their Sausage and Maple combination! To help me recreate this tastiness on the road I usually add Tillamook Unsalted Butter, maple syrup, and sausage on top of my Texas shaped waffles! While my version is a little different from Flavour Spot’s, it still helps me reminisce of all the wonderful food carts in my hometown!

Now that I’ve shared some of my favorite NW dishes, what are some of your favorites? Share with me on Twitter or Facebook!
Twitter: @AprilFoCheezy
Facebook: April FoCheezy

By Tillamook

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

Get your grilled cheese on with Tillamook all month long on Pinterest! What better way to celebrate these delicious 30 days than with recipes, tips, and all things grilled cheesy!? Each day, a new pin on our “Grilled Cheese (Smorgas)Board” Pinterest board will be revealed for our fans! Tune in for chances to repin and win!
Follow along here!

To enter sweepstakes:
1) Follow Tillamook on Pinterest
2) Repin any “Win This” pin for a chance to win that item!
3) All winners will be announced at the end of the month on their re-pinned pin, and the original Tillamook pin
Official contest rules

By Loafy

Big family feasts and holiday meals are the best! That’s when all the best tasting food comes to the table (and the best leftovers)! However, after a few days, I tend to get a little bored of eating the same leftovers. So, instead of eating the same meal over and over again, I like to bake the leftovers into some puff pastry (or pie crust, whatever you have) and eat it as a hand pie.

Hand pies are exactly what they sound like, pies that you can hold in your hand and eat! There are some traditional hand pie recipes, but they can really be any combination of flavors or leftover that you have.

I always have leftover scallop potatoes and ham from Easter dinner, and they seemed like a perfect hand pie filling. I tucked my leftovers into some store bought puff pastry (found in the freezer section) with some Tillamook Swiss Cheese. Make sure your scallop potatoes (or whatever leftovers you are using) are cold when you load them into your shell, that way they aren’t too gooey when you seal the hand pie.

Layer your leftovers in the middle of your pastry dough (make sure to leave enough room around the edges to seal the hand pie). Brush the edges with an egg wash (mix together an egg yolk and a little water) and then seal the pie by pressing the two sides together; mark the edges with a fork.  Poke a few holes in the top to keep the pies from bursting while cooking and then brush the top with egg wash. Throw them in a 400 degree oven until they are gold brown (about 15-20 minutes).

We always seem to have a colony of chocolate bunnies around the house after Easter, so I cracked off a few pieces of chocolate and baked them into a cherry hand pie.

You will want to let them cool a little, but they are definitely best served warm out of the oven!

The options are truly endless; ham, swiss, and honey mustard or how about roast beef, horseradish cream, and provolone. What leftovers would you make a hand pie with?

By Candace