Last Saturday, I spent the day at the San Antonio Zoo celebrating Mother’s Day in true cheesy style! My friendly brand ambassadors helped spread the Tillamook Loaf Love by sharing cheesy samples and taking photos. In honor of Mother’s Day, the first 100 moms who came to the zoo dressed in orange even got in free! Visitors played bingo all across the zoo and shared their photos on Instagram for a chance to win a year’s supply of Tillamook Cheese!

Here are some photos from the Instagram contest and my day at the zoo!

The Loaf Love Tour will be in San Antonio until May 23 giving out samples, coupons, and smiles to everyone they meet – so don’t miss out! Be sure to check out the tour schedule to see if there are stops near you!

I’ll be hanging out on Twitter and Facebook if you want to say hi!

By Loafy

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

May is for moms and we’re celebrating everything they give us—including their good looks. Send us your best mother-and-child look-alike photo and you could win a $300 shopping spree in the Tillamook Online Shop!

How to Enter:
1) “Like” Tillamook on Facebook!
2) Pose for a snapshot with your son, daughter, mom, or furry friend and show off your matching genes!
3) Upload your photo through the Tillamama & Me tab on Facebook.
4) Make sure to send us your entries between May 1 and May 23, 2013.

Vote for the winner:

After we pick 10 finalists, vote for your favorite look-alike photo from May 24 to May 30. Remember to cast a new vote every day to give your favorite look-alike photo the best chance of winning. The pic with the most votes will win $300 to spend on the Tillamook Online Shop! We’ll announce the winner on May 31, so stay tuned!

Please see the Official Rules for more details, or contact us with any comments or questions.

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.

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

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

April 12^th is National Grilled Cheese Day, and Tillamook is helping you celebrate!

Tillamook is taking over San Francisco to celebrate National Grilled Cheese Day! Stop by The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen for a FREE grilled cheese sandwich, prepared by gourmet grilled cheese master and Tillamook Kitchen Chef, Heidi Gibson! Stop by The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen at 1 South Park from 5-7 PM for your free sandwich.

Plus, enter to win a year’s supply of cheese! Share your cheesiest grilled cheese moments on Instagram from April 8-12! Use #Cheeseaholic and tag @Tillamook to enter. Click here for official rules.

By Tillamook

Do you think you have what it takes to help choose the next winner of the Tillamook Cheese Factory Grilled Cheese Recipe Contest? Tell us why and you could be part of the judges’ panel, spending your Saturday tasting yummy recipes from our three finalists then telling the world whose recipe reigns the cheesiest!

How to Enter
1) Send an email to fans@tillamook.com and tell us why you deserve to be one of the judges for this year’s cook-off. Whether it’s your love for Tillamook Cheese, an eye for the perfect grill mark, an obsession with grilled cheese – or all three! – we want to know!
2) Submit your entry by midnight on Monday, April 15.

The winner will be selected and notified no later than Friday, April 19. The contest cook-off will take place at the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Tillamook, Oregon on Saturday, April 27. See official rules here.

Good luck!

By Loafy

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

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.