We all know that waffles are delicious, but did you also know that they make a wonderful vessel for sandwiches? That’s right, waffle sandwiches (a.k.a. Dutch Tacos)! We know our cheese, but we needed a little help with the waffle side of things so we visited the Portland food cart Flavourspot to find the best way to celebrate….With waffles and cheese of course!

Waffle 1:
Muenster Cheese, smothered in brown sugar, with green apple, and bacon. It’s a riff off the classic baked brie! And it’s very, very tasty.

Waffle 2:
Smoked Medium Cheddar Cheese, veggie sausage, and maple syrup. Need we say more?

Waffle 3:
Turkey, Jalapenos, Smoked Black Pepper White Cheddar Cheese, and America’s Best Colby Jack Cheese, all wrapped up in a waffle. Doesn’t get much better than this!

If you don’t have a waffle maker at home, fear not! The frozen waffles you can buy in the grocery store also work just fine. Or, if you’re in the Portland area, Flavourspot is the perfect place to indulge. Happy International Waffle Day!

Stay connected with Flavourspot on:
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By Laura

Drum roll please. . . . . .
Announcing the 3^rd Annual Tillamook Cheese Factory Grilled Cheese Contest

Do you have the best tasting, creamiest melting, most unique and utterly irresistible grilled cheese sandwich recipe out there? Then enter the Tillamook Cheese Factory Grilled Cheese Contest! From March 22 through April 15, submit your one-of-a-kind recipe and you could be one of three finalists who will compete in a live cook-off on Saturday, April 27 at the Cheese Factory. A panel of judges including chefs, local personalities such as Marlynn Schotland of Urban Bliss Life, and professional cheese tasters (yes, that is a real job) will pick a winner who will get bragging rights for the best darned Tillamook Grilled Cheese sandwich on the planet – oh, and $500 and a delicious Tillamook goodie basket! There are goodie basket prizes for our runners up, too.

Three easy ways to enter:

1) E-mail your name, city, daytime phone number, and grilled cheese recipe to grilledcheesecontest@tillamook.com (check entry format for instructions on recipe format), or
2) Stop by the Cheese Factory for entry format sample and contest rules; type up your recipe and return it there, or
3) Type your recipe according to entry format and mail it to us!
4) Make sure to follow the entry format or we’ll have to disqualify your delicious recipe!

But hurry – deadline for entries is midnight, Monday, April 15. Click here for all the contest details and official rules!

You say you’re not much of a cook but still LOAF to eat Tillamook grilled cheese sandwiches? Then you will want to enter our contest to become our Celebrity “Best Tillamook Cheese Fan” judge at the recipe cook-off! Details on this contest coming soon so stay tuned as the Loaf Life Blog celebrates National Grilled Cheese month, which begins April 1!

By Susan P.

We’re so proud of our Dairy Products Quality Manager, Jill Allen, who had the incredible honor of judging at the 2013 United States Championship Cheese Contest®. At Tillamook, Jill and her team taste test hundreds of cheese samples every day to make sure each little loaf delivers the consistent quality our fans love. Although Jill didn’t judge any Tillamook Cheese at the competition, she put her fine-tuned taste buds to good use by grading several cheeses from across the country. Jill wasn’t the only one to receive recognition at the championship; check out the awards our own Tillamook cheeses took home! I had the opportunity to chat with Jill about her exciting experience.

Q: Was this your first time judging a cheese competition?
A: Yes, this was my first professional judging competition. I was very excited to judge at a National Level.

Q: How were you selected to be a judge?
A: I obtained my Wisconsin Cheese Graders License, and then was nominated to judge by other grading professionals.

Q: Which types of cheese did you taste?
A: I graded Flavored Semi-Soft Cheeses, Smoked Hard Cheeses, Reduced Fat Soft and Semi-Soft Cheeses, and Reduced Fat Hard Cheese.

Q: What were you looking for in each category?
A: We judged the cheese based on flavor; body and texture; makeup and appearance; color; and rind development.

Q: How many samples do you think you tasted altogether?
A: Probably around 100.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the judging process? Did you eat or drink anything to cleanse your palette in between samples?
A: I was partnered with another judge and we worked as a pair. Each judge had to be precise and assess the cheeses individually, but also collaborate as a team. After each tasting we cleansed our pallets with tart green apples and water.

Q: Did you learn anything surprising during the competition?
A: It was great being able to experience the excitement of judging at the US National Cheese Contest®. Judges came from all corners of the country. It was an experience like no other; to be part of an elite judging team that gets to experience and choose the best cheese in the United States.

Q: How much cheese do you taste each day at Tillamook, and do you ever get tired of eating it?
A: Tillamook has a grading team of 6 members, and together we probably grade around 400 pieces of cheese a day. My team loves what we do and loves Tillamook cheese!

Q: What’s your favorite type of Tillamook Cheese?
A: My favorite Tillamook Cheese is any of our Cheddars, Yellow or White.

Q: What is the weirdest type of cheese you have ever tried?
A: At the 2010 World Championship Cheese Contest, I tasted a semi soft cheese, wrapped in seaweed!

By Callie

If you didn’t know it, the sign should indicate that there are some great artisan products at the Oregon Cheese Festival!

Is there a better place to be than with fellow cheese lovers in a town that also holds a festival for William Shakespeare and has a totally down-home, hippie vibe that loves locals and welcomes artisans?! No. There is not. I know this because this past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to, along with two co-workers, represent Tillamook at the Oregon Cheese Guild’s 9th Annual Oregon Cheese Festival!

Four varieties of Oregon Cheeses made for one amazing dinner

The weekend started with a dinner featuring 4 varieties of Oregon Cheeses – and that doesn’t even include the cheese plate before the meal with about 20 different cheeses! WHOA! I had tasted some before (if you haven’t had it, you must try Portland Creamery’s Sweet Fire! It’s an unbelievably delicious Chevre with a Habanero Marionberry jam) and some I hadn’t had. After making sure to taste them all, I left with a greater appreciation of the quality of cheese making in Oregon. We’re pretty lucky.

Just one picture of the nearly 10,000 people who came to the 8th Annual Oregon Cheese Festival

The next day was the main event. Held right next to Rogue Creamery’s headquarters in Central Point, OR, nearly 10,000 people came to celebrate Oregon bounty under a tent that blocked not rain, but sun on this beautiful weekend! Tillamook was there with other Oregon cheeses from Rogue Creamery, Willamette Valley Cheese Company, Portland Creamery and many, MANY other artisan producers. We handed out about 60lbs of free samples of some of our more specialty cheeses: Smoked Black Pepper White Cheddar, Garlic Chili Pepper Cheddar, America’s Best Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar, Special Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar and Sharp Cheddar cheeses. We also gave people recipes to try at home and wine pairing guides (which came in very handy – there were some great Oregon wines on hand to be tasted).

Driving up the Oregon Coast is always a good idea – made better when the sun decides to peak out!

I have to throw in that if you are Ashland, you should stay at the Ashland Springs Hotel. It’s a beautiful, old hotel that is part of the Historic Hotels of America and is close to everything downtown Ashland has to offer. Try out Standing Stone Brewery for some great beer and Mix café for an AMAZING chocolate croissant, then hike Lithia Park and take a drive through Myrtle Creek and up the coast through Coos Bay, Newport, and Lincoln City to see all of the incredibly natural wonders that allow Oregon to have all of the bountiful food we do!

This event was an incredible celebration of the growing cheese industry in Oregon and Tillamook was truly thrilled to be a part of it! Make sure you remember to put this on your calendar next year so you too can enjoy some of the best cheeses in America – all under one HUGE tent!

By Matt

We’ve got some good news! Three varieties of Tillamook Cheese were voted “America’s Best” at the 2013 United States Championship Cheese Contest®!

Tillamook Colby Jack took “Best of Class” with a score of 99.40. Colby Jack is a veteran on the winners’ stand, previously earning “America’s Best Colby Jack” at the 2011 U.S. Championship! Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar was voted “Best of Class” receiving a score of 99.45 out of 100, as well as second place in the Aged 2 years or longer Cheddar Category. Tillamook Sharp Cheddar scored 98.65 earning “Best of Class” for Sharp Cheddar aged 6 months to one year. We’re honored to be able to offer these “America’s Best” cheeses to all of our fans!

Held last week in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest® had a record-breaking total of over 1,700 entries, up 100 entries from 2011!!!

By Tillamook

It’s that time of year again! It’s time to pack away your winter clothes and celebrate the arrival of spring. Out with the old and in with the new. It’s time to say goodbye to those mystery leftovers on the top shelf and give your fridge the TLC it deserves. As the temperature begins to rise, you might find yourself spending more and more time outside of the house and busy as ever! Solution!? Create a snack drawer in your fridge for easy on-the-go options! The idea came from a friend of mine with two busy kids. While there aren’t any kids running around my house, I’m not ashamed to admit this tip works great for any age!

Designate a drawer and stock it with Tilla-Moos, or cheeses that you’ve pre-sliced and cubed in serving size containers or baggies. I’ve also got a variety of Tillamook Yogurt and some veggies that I’ve pre-cut, washed, and bagged in mine.

What’s your favorite grab-and-go snack!?

By Amalya

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

I’ve seen some images floating around online of sushi rolls made with mac and cheese. Could it be that a marriage between sushi and mac and cheese, two of my favorite foods, really exists? There was only one way to find out if this urban legend was as scrumptious as it looked.

My experiment began with creating three different flavors of mac and cheese. The first was your standard fare, not too gooey, but certainly cheese laden. The second, I made extra cheesy. Something inside me said, the more cheese I added, the closer to sticky rice the consistency would get. The third was all about flavor. I used Tillamook Garlic White Cheddar to kick it up a notch. Once my mac and cheese was prepped, I let it cool in the fridge for an hour. You know how when you refrigerate leftover mac and cheese, it firms up? Well that’s exactly what I was going for!

An hour later, I removed it from the fridge and started making my rolls…easier said than done. I covered my sushi rolling mat in plastic wrap and sprinkled breadcrumbs over one third of the mat. Then, I scooped the mac and cheese onto the breadcrumbs and spread it out into a long rectangle, trying to make sure there were no gaps. I tried placing a few different things inside the rolls: pesto sauce, parmesan, more breadcrumbs, and thin strips of cheese. Rolling the rolls proved pretty difficult, especially with the plastic wrap. I ended up trying aluminum foil as well, which held its shape much better. The mac and cheese oozed out the ends of my rolling mat on my first few tries. Once I had the rolls complete and wrapped, I placed them in the fresezer for another hour.

I took the rolls out, unwrapped them, and sliced them into sushi pieces using a sharp knife. I let the rolls sit out and warm to room temperature before eating (I highly recommend this, they’ll hold their shape and taste much better). I sprinkled some cayenne pepper on top of a few of the rolls for good measure, and dipped the sushi pieces in pesto sauce, Tabasco sauce, and Secret Aardvark Habanero sauce.

As far as execution, the rolls with strips of cheese in the center held up the best. The pesto sauce leaked through the center of the roll, but still tasted great. I really recommend trying this experiment with the flavored cheddars. The Garlic White Cheddar rolls were my favorite!

Would you try this cheestastic sushi experiment!?

By Amalya

Birthdays, the Loaf Love Tour hitting the road, Wednesday afternoon – we’ll use any reason to celebrate, as long as cheese is involved! But of course, we need a plate to serve all that cheese on! I saw this DIY platter and thought it would be the perfect way to class up our daily cheese celebrations!

Instead of painting the whole plate with chalkboard paint, I decided to paint a thin strip along the bottom of the platter; I didn’t really like the idea of cheese sitting on chalkboard paint. There are some food safe paint options out there, so make sure to read the label before painting.

I already had the white plate and tape (I recommend painters tape because it peels off easily without leaving a sticky residue), so all I needed was some standard chalkboard paint, chalk, and a disposable paint brush.

Tape off the area you want to paint and apply two coats of chalkboard paint, allowing the first coat to dry before applying the second. Allow it to dry overnight and peel off the tape!

When you’re ready to party; grab a piece of chalk, cut up your favorite cheese varieties (as you can see, I used Colby Jack Cheese, Swiss Cheese Slices, and Medium Cheddar Cheese), and serve!

Share your cheese platters with us on Pinterest!

By Candace

Celebrate our 104^th birthday with us by munching on Squeaky Cheese Curds fresh from the Tillamook Cheese Factory. For today only, we’re opening the vats and releasing Squeaky Cheese Curds on the Online Shop. Supplies are limited, so get ‘em while they squeak! Funds raised will benefit the Oregon Food Bank to support hunger relief.

Order your tasty curds here!

By Callie