This tasty recipe comes from Chelsea Day of the family blog Someday I’ll Learn, where Chelsea and her husband tackle domestic life, including cooking, cleaning, parenting, organization, money management and more…one day at a time! They aim to simplify life for other busy parents with helpful tips and a healthy dose of reality.

Overview
These cook up quickly and use just a few ingredients for an easy appetizer with bold flavor. The fancy-looking white cheddar cups are sure to impress at a Sunday brunch or even as a light dinner on a warm evening.

Ingredients
8 oz package Tillamook Smoked Black Pepper White Cheddar Cheese, grated
1 cup mixed spinach, bok choy and baby greens
1 granny smith apple, diced
¼ cup sugared almonds, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette

Preparation
Preheat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Spread a small handful of cheese in a 4-inch circle in the center of the skillet and cook over medium heat until crispy, approximately one minute. Flip with a spatula and cook approximately 15 seconds more.

Gently place cheese crisp in muffin tin to form a cheese cup. Let cool completely. Repeat with remaining cheese to make 8 cheese cups.

In a medium bowl, combine spinach mixture, apple, almonds, olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. Divide spinach mixture equally among cheese cups and serve.

About Chelsea:
Tips for stress-free home entertaining:
The best recipes are actually quite simple, with the correct mixture of just a few tasty components. Invest in high-quality ingredients to simplify the cooking process. When you let good food stand for itself, you’d be amazed how easily a dish comes together.

Kitchen advice for other moms and dads:
Families are so busy nowadays that mealtime can become a huge stressor. Don’t guilt yourself into trying to make everything perfect or from scratch. Allow yourself a few shortcuts to keep cooking fun, and remember that it’s all about quality time spent together.

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By Tillamook

Recently, I’ve been catching myself adding a little spice to my favorite cheesy dishes. One of my favorites is to add habañero jelly (a sweet and spicy combination) to my grilled cheese sandwiches. When I realized Tillamook Cheese and habañero jelly are a match made in taste bud heaven, I came up with the idea of combining them into sweet and savory dessert. This recipe takes the delicious flavor of cheddar cornbread and kicks it up a notch with spicy habanero and sweet frosting. 

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients: Cheddar Cheese Cornbread Muffins
¾ cup flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons honey
½ cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup Tillamook Medium Cheddar Cheese Shreds
1 egg
2 tablespoons Tillamook Premium Sour Cream
¾ cup milk
Kelly’s Habañero Jelly (I also tried them with Glenmore Farms Marionberry Preserves – delicious alternative if you don’t like spicy)

Preparation: Cheddar Cheese Cornbread Muffins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place cupcake papers in a cupcake pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, corn meal, and cheese. In a separate bowl, beat egg, add milk, sour cream, and honey.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture. Stir mixture until dry ingredients are fully moistened. Fill cupcake cups ⅔ full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Spoon 1 teaspoon of jelly on top of the slightly warm muffin. Let cool for 20 minutes and frost.

Ingredients: Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz pack of cream cheese, at room temperature
¼ cup Tillamook Unsalted Butter
2 cups powdered sugar
½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

Preparation: Cream Cheese Frosting
Beat cream cheese and butter in a mixer with vanilla and gradually add powdered sugar while mixing until mixture thickens. Continue adding sugar to your liking. Put into a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes. Enjoy!

Best when eaten right away :)

What unlikely combinations will you try making cupcakes with!?!

By Amalya

In celebration of Hanukkah (the Jewish Festival of Lights) my family and I are cooking up some traditional potato latkes served with delicious Tillamook Sour Cream.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients
4 cups peeled and shredded potatoes
2 tablespoons grated onion
5 eggs
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons salt
1 cup peanut oil
Tillamook Sour Cream

Preparation
Peel and wash potatoes and shred in a food processor or by hand. Then place potatoes in a cloth or cheesecloth and wring out as much water as possible. In a bowl, mix the potatoes, onions, eggs, flour, and salt.

Fill a deep skillet with the peanut oil over medium-high heat and heat until hot. Place large spoonfuls of the potato mixture into the hot oil and press them into patties using a spatula. Brown one side, flip to brown the other side – do this carefully so you don’t splash hot oil. Remove latkes from oil and place on a paper towel to soak up excess oil. Serve hot with a dollop of Tillamook Sour Cream and apple sauce to your liking.

The good news is we can celebrate with latkes for eight days straight!

What traditional recipes do you look forward to this time of year?

By Amalya

Scones remind me of times spent with family. They seem to always be present at big family gatherings, festive occasions or any time a scone lover pleads for them to be made…which means, in my house, they are made often. With so many scones being eaten, it’s helpful to change up the recipe to keep things fresh. One of my favorite recipes is for Tillamook Cheddar Scones. They are rich, buttery, flaky, light with just the right amount of savory cheesy goodness to go with any dinner, or lunch…or breakfast! Enjoy!

Ingredients
4 cups and 1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1½ teaspoon salt
¾ pound and 1 tablespoon Tillamook Salted Butter
5 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz Tillamook Special Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar
½ cup chopped scallions
1 tablespoon milk

Preparation
Prepare your ingredients. You want your butter cold. Really cold! It’s the secret to flaky scones. Cut up a ¾ pound of the butter into small cubes, place them in a bowl, and stick them back in the fridge until it’s time to use them. Cut up the scallions. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon butter into a fry pan over medium heat. Add the scallions to the pan and saute for a few minutes (about 4 minutes). Set aside and allow to cool completely. Cut up ½ pound of the Tillamook Cheese into small cubes and set aside.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the over to 400 degrees.

Use an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add 4 cups flour, the baking powder, and salt. Mix, being careful to go slow so the flour doesn’t shoot up at you. Add the super cold butter to the flour and mix until the butter becomes the size of peas and is covered by the flour mixture. It’s important that you can still see little chucks of butter in the mixture. Lightly beat 4 eggs in a small bowl. Add the heavy cream and the eggs to the flour and butter. Combine, being careful not to over mix. Add 1 tablespoon of flour to the cheddar cubes and mix to cover the cheese with a light coating of flour. Add the cheddar and the scallions to the batter, mixing as little as possible.

Flour a counter and place the dough on the counter. Knead the dough for a minute or two, until the cheese is distributed. Roll the dough out to a ¾ inch thick sheet. Cut dough into 22 trinagles.

Mix one egg with milk in a small bowl. Brush on top of scones. Bake in oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops of scones are lightly brown. Recipe makes 22 scones.

By Kelly

Oregon is home to so many delicious foods! While Tillamook Cheese is always the first food I think of when I dream of tasty Oregon treats, hazelnuts are a close second. Often called filberts in Oregon, these distinct little nuts have been combined with desserts by many great chefs for hundreds of years. With an Oregon themed dinner party on the horizon, I knew I needed to combine these tasty nuts with Tillamook Ice Cream to make the perfect Oregon inspired dessert.

First step: Make the meringue!
Yields: 16 disks for 8 sandwiches

Ingredients
1½ cups toasted hazelnuts
1½ cups sugar
5 egg whites
Pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract

In a food processor combine the toasted hazelnuts and 1½ cups sugar. Mix until the nuts are as fine as the sugar. Use a spoon to fluff up the nuts and make sure there are no large nuts left.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a pencil and a round glass about 3 inches in diameter, trace 8 circles on each sheet. Flip the sheets over so the pencil side is down.

In a mixer, beat the egg whites on low speed until they foam. Add the salt and cream of tartar. Continue beating until soft peaks form. Leaving the mixer on, slowly add the 3 tablespoons of sugar, vanilla, and almond extracts. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until hard shinny peaks form. Turn mixer off and using a spoon fold in the almond-sugar mixture. Place the meringue in a pastry bag and starting with the outside of the circle, pipe the mixture onto the cookie sheets ending in the middle of each circle. Place in oven and cook for 1 hour or until the meringue will move around on the sheet when poked. Take out of the oven and allow to cool completely.

Once the meringue disks have cooled. Take out your favorite flavor of Tillamook Ice cream. (I used Tillamook Mudslide but I suspect many other flavors, like Espresso Mocha, would be delicious.) Let the ice cream melt a little so that it is easily molded without breaking the meringue cookie. Place a scoop of ice cream on top of a meringue disk, smash it down so it’s level and place another disk on top. Wrap each cookie in saran warp and place in the freezer until you are ready to eat!

These little Oregon treats are great for a quick dessert whenever you’re ready for a Pacific Northwest snack!

By Kelly

“Well, do you want to make somethings unbelievably delicious?”

I was sitting at my mother’s house, trying to figure out what to make for a family dinner when my mom posed this exact question. I looked up from the cookbook I was flipping through for inspiration, raised an eyebrow and responded with, “I can’t imagine saying no to that question.” Somehow, my mom had knowledge of a corn pudding that is both silky smooth in texture, balanced between a savory base and bursts of sweetness, and so satisfyingly good that each bite leaves you feeling warmed from the inside. It seems like an exaggeration, sure, but then you haven’t tried this corn pudding, YET!

The recipe is based off The Barefoot Contessa Sagaponack Corn Pudding recipe but has been tweaked over the years by my own mother.

Ingredients
¼ lbs of Tillamook Salted Butter
1 ½ jalapeno peppers
5 cups fresh corn kernels cut off the cob
1 cup chopped onion
4 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 cup half and half
½  cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons chopped basil leaves
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
¾  teaspoon black pepper
10 oz grated Tillamook Special Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a 2 quart backing dish by greasing with butter.

In a saute pan add butter and allow to melt over medium heat. Add jalapenos and saute for about two minutes. Turn heat up to medium-high and add corn and onion. Saute entire mixture for about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Add eggs, milk, and half and half in a large bowl and whisk together until combined. Slowly add in the cornmeal and ricotta. Mix well. Next, add in basil, sugar, salt and pepper. Finally, add in corn mixture and approximately 6 ounces of the Tillamook Cheese. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Fill a larger baking pan half way with water. Place the baking pan containing corn pudding mixture into the water bath. Place into oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until the top has browned and a toothpick placed in the middle of the pudding comes out clean.

You will want to eat the pudding immediately, while it’s still warm. Enjoy!

By Kelly

Try this delicious fall recipe!

I have been having a hard time saying goodbye to summer, the warm weather, the sun setting after 9:00pm and the endless bowls of ice cream. To help me cope with the changing seasons, I started to think about all the recipes that have been waiting patiently to be made once cooler weather settled in. I love classic fall recipes like pumpkin soup, mac and cheese, and homemade apple pie. There’s nothing better than a kitchen warmed by the oven and the smell of something warm and gooey baking from within. While summer has a lot of positive things going for it, it is just too darn hot to have the over cranking out these fall classics. So, with fall officially upon us, I pulled down my grandmother’s recipes, handed down for countless generations and flipped right to the bread section. The first fall recipe made had to be Chunk of Cheese Bread. The dough is rich and dark thanks to molasses and the cubes of cheese dot the entire loaf making each bite a warm comforting taste of all things cozy. Below is my grandmother’s recipe! Do you have a favorite fall recipe? Share it with us!

Chunk of Cheese Bread
Makes 2 loafs

1 ¾ cup Water
½ corn meal
2 teaspoons salt
Bring to a boil, stirring all the time until thick.
½ cup molasses
2 tab butter
Add molasses and butter to the corn meal mixture then cool to warm. It needs to be cool enough so as not to kill the yeast.
1 package yeast
½ cup warm water
2 cups flour
Add yeast, water and flour to corn meal mixture. Beat for two minutes in a bowl with spoon.
4 to 4 ¾ cups flour
Add flour to other mixture until incorporated. Let raise for two hours.
4 cups cheese cubed

Directions
Divide dough in two. Roll out to 12 inch circle then add half the cheese cubes to each circle of dough, covering the entire surface. Push the cubes into the dough so they are partially embedded into the dough. Fold edges of dough over to cover cheese and create a round loaf of bread. Place each loaf into a 9 inch cake pan that has been covered in foil and buttered. Let raise one hour.

Bake at 350 for 45 to 60 minutes.

By Kelly

Puff pastry? Tillamook Cheese? Who doesn’t love that? To satisfy my craving for pastry at dinner time I made savory cheese straws to take the place of bread. They are light, cheesy and a perfect treat to accompany any meal. The best part is, they are versatile. You can use any Tillamook Cheese that sounds good or matches your meal. I choose Tillamook Shredded Italian Blend but I’m now dying to try Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar. You can also use any herbs that you have on hand. The recipe calls for thyme but almost any herb would do.

Makes: 24

Ingredients
2 sheets of frozen puff pastry
1 egg
1½ cups Tillamook Shredded Italian Blend
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375°F.

Combine the egg with a splash of water and beat with a fork. Set aside. Grate the cheese if you are not using shredded cheese and set aside. Chop the fresh thyme or other herbs you are using and set aside. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Roll out both sheets of puff pastry on a floured counter. You want the pastry sheets to be about 12 inches long. Brush the pastry sheets with the beaten egg mixture. Sprinkle the two sheets with the cheese, herbs, salt and pepper. Using your hand, press the ingredients into the puff pastry to help them stick. Cut the pastry into 12 even strips. Twist each strip and place on the baking sheet.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until the straws are lightly brown. Turn the straws over and back for an additional 2 minutes.

What cheese and herb combination will you try?

* This recipe is adapted from Food Network.

By Kelly

If your family is like mine, summer is the time for lots of outdoor get-togethers. With loads of aunts, uncles and cousins everyone is responsible for bringing something tasty to share. There are tons of classic potluck dishes but in my family, you can’t bring anything verging on mediocre. We aim high when it comes to taste buds but with Tillamook Monterey Jack Cheese in my back pocket, I never risk family ridicule. My go to potluck recipe is a classic pasta salad with a twist. Here’s how you take a pasta salad and turn it into something worth talking about.

Ingredients

Salad
1 pound fusilli pasta
Pinch of salt
Olive oil
1 pound cherry tomatoes
1 bunch scallions
1 cup pitted kalamata olives
1 pound Tillamook Monterey Jack Cheese
10 sun-dried tomatoes drained and chopped

Dressing
10 sun-dried tomatoes
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
8 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon capers
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Directions
Boil water and cook pasta as directed by packaging. While the water is heating up, heat up your grill. Cover the tomatoes and the scallions in olive oil and lightly grill. Chop the grilled tomatoes, scallions, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes. When the pasta is done cooking, drain and then return noodles to pot. Immediately add tomatoes, scallions, olives and sun-dried tomatoes to warm pasta.

Make the dressing by placing 10 sun-dried tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, capers, salt, and pepper in a food processor. Mix until combines. Add the dressing to the pasta and stir together.

Cut the Tillamook Monterey Jack cheese into small cubes. Add to pasta salad when cooled. You don’t want the cheese to melt. Serve cold or at room temperature. Serves 8.

By Kelly

This Butter Tart is a more like shortbread than a traditional pie crust, and has a wonderful crisp texture. The butter crust holds up well with a simple fruit filling, or my favorite, Sour Cream Lemon Curd (recipe follows below).

Butter Tart Crust
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1¼ cups flour
⅔ cup powdered sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons cold Tillamook Unsalted Butter cut into small bits (I cut mine up and put it in the freezer until it’s needed)

Directions
In a small bowl whisk the egg yolk, cream, and vanilla together and set aside.

In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, and salt.  Add in butter and pulse about 20 times, until butter is incorporated. Turn on food processor and add the egg mixture through the feed tube and process until liquid is absorbed, and mixture comes together.

Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to two days.

After you have chilled dough, let it soften at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. Roll dough out to fit into tart pan, and place into freezer for about 30 minutes. Cover dough with foil, and weigh down with pie weights (I use beans).

Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes, remove foil and weights, and continue baking until the crust is a deep golden brown, about 5-10 minutes longer.

My dad is a lemon lover, and I have tried dozens of different lemon curd and pie filling recipes over the years, and we both agree this is hands down the best one yet! This year for Father’s Day, I made him a Butter Tart with this filing, but I also made an extra batch that I put in a mason jar. My mom said he savored the contents of that jar, and added it to almost everything…marionberry cobbler, vanilla bean ice cream, toast, fresh fruit, etc.

Sour Cream Lemon Curd
7 large egg yolks
2 large whole eggs
1¼ cups sugar
¾ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 5 lemons)
¼ cup grated lemon zest
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons Tillamook Unsalted Butter
½ cup Tillamook Natural Sour Cream
1 Butter Tart, warm from the oven

Directions
In a medium sauce pan, whisk egg yolks, whole eggs, and sugar together until combine; add in lemon juice, zest, salt, and butter and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until curd thickens (about 8 minutes).

Strain curd through a fine mesh strainer and add sour cream. Add curd to the warm tart crust and bake at 375°F for about 10-15 minutes.

Let cool and enjoy!

By Aimee