

What’s Your Favorite Tillamook Ice Cream?

A New Menu at the Tillamook Creamery

Cool Facts About Tillamook
- Tillamook has dairy farms all right around the town so that the milk can come straight to the factory and be made into products within 24-hours vs other cheesemakers that have to ship milk in.
- The Tillamook Creamery runs 24/7, meaning that someone is always working to get that cheese turned right on over to different products versus sitting and losing quality.
- Tillamook has been rated with the one of the top dairy measures in the nation. The national Somatic cell count (SCC) average is 200,000, and Tillamook has been lower than 200,000 for 16 years. SCC is a measure of both milk quality and animal health, a lower SCC indicates better milk quality and animal health. This means Tillamook is about 16 years ahead of their competitors in quality.
Cool Facts Cont’d
- Many cheese brands cut about 640- pound blocks of cheese. Now, think about that, by the time that thing cools in the center the outside has already cooled and begun aging. The brand cuts and sells smaller blocks that are now all over the place for age.
- Tillamook produces their cheese in 42-pound blocks because that is the ideal size to consistently cool down the product.
- By Federal Regulation Code, cheddar cheese can have up to 39% moisture, meaning that companies can add in a bunch of water or use lower quality dairy. Tillamook cheddars are much lower in moisture because they like to use more dairy components (fat and protein) to make creamier, better tasting dairy products! (Ice cream is another example of creamy versus crystalized product)
- Tillamook cheese, yogurt, butter and ice cream are just the best. Like really.
Tillamook Creamery
What is Pesto?
Pesto is a delicious sauce often made from basil, olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese and pine nuts.
Why is Pesto so High in Calories?
Ingredients in your pesto such as the olive oil and pine nuts are a bit higher in calories, because they have a high fat content. What makes this food considered “healthy” is that the fat is unsaturated.
How to Cook Bacon in the Oven
Bacon is almost always shown in a pan, sizzling away into perfection, but the truth is, pan cooking bacon is not the way to go.
If you really want to know how to cook bacon, start with your oven.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees, and line a pan with tin foil for ease of cleanup.
Place the bacon on the pan and cook for 10-15 minutes depending on how thick the bacon is.
Sun Dried Tomato Bacon Pesto Grilled cheese
Here’s how it all goes down for a sun-dried tomato bacon pesto grilled cheese:
- You spread fresh pesto on two pieces of bread.
- Place cheese on one piece of bread, covering it completely.
- Lay bacon and sun-dried tomatoes on top.
- Add more Tillamook White Medium Cheddar cheese because at this point, it’s all over any way, so you might as well go for it.
- In a small dish, mix together softened butter and some of the pesto.
- Close the sandwich together and spread the bread with the pesto butter.
- Heat a skillet to medium heat and DO NOT add the bread until it is hot.
- Add the sandwich and cook until golden, meanwhile pesto-buttering the other side of the sandwich.
- Place a lid over the pan.
- Flip the sandwich and cook again until golden.
The Secret to a Perfect Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Did you catch our secret to a perfect sun-dried tomato bacon pesto grilled cheese sandwich above?
Sometimes your bread cooks faster than the cheese and you’re stuck with under melted cheese, but to cook it further would darken the bread too much.
The best solution is to stick a lid over the sandwich while it cooks, whether you do it on the first side or second doesn’t matter that much.
If you do it after flipping, once you remove the lid just flip the sandwich back to the first side to re-crisp that bread if needed. Just like a panini!
Sandwich RECIPES
Looking for more sandwich recipes? A good sandwich is one of my favorite things, so make sure you try our Honey Avocado Turkey Bacon Sandwich, French Dip Sandwich, Triple Decker Club Sandwich or Lemon Dill Cucumber Sanwiches! Oh and don’t forget our Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Panini!
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Sun Dried Tomato Bacon Pesto Grilled Cheese
Description
Ingredients
- 4 Slices Bread, good quality white
- 1/2 Cup Pesto, click to use our recipe
- 1/3 Cup Tomatoes, Sun-dried, drained (oil packed!!!)
- 4 Slices Bacon, cooked
- Cheese, Tillamook White Cheddar
- Butter, Tillamook, Softened
Instructions
- Place the pesto on each side of the bread. I like to really load it on.
- Add slices of cheese to cover the bread, cooked bacon, sun-dried tomatoes, more cheese and top with the other slice of bread.
- Take the softened butter and mix just slightly less pesto with it.
- Spread over the outside of the bread and grill until melty!!
Notes
Nutrition
Recommended Products

Tillamook’s booth at Night Market for the Feast food festival in Portland.
Bloggers, Darling Down South and Fit Mitten Kitchen.
Rebecca Daly
How much cheese?? How much butter??
Sweet Basil
Hi Rebecca! That is totally up to you. It depends on how cheesy you want it. For the butter, I’d say probably 1-2 tablespoons combined with some pesto and spread across 4 slices of bread.
Healthy Kitchen 101
Wow! Such an interesting place! I would love to visit it once 😍 And the sandwich looks perfect! Especially, how the melting butter and cheese combine with other parts.
– Natalie Ellis
Sweet Basil
Butter and cheese…two of my favorite things!!
Cathy Jeppsen
I love Tillamook! And Grilled Cheese! I’ll be making this soon!
Sweet Basil
Isn’t it the best?! You’re going to love this!
Rebecca Browne
wish to attend the event. happy to see you guys.
Sweet Basil
We would love it! Come say hi!
Pamela @ Brooklyn Farm Girl
I’ve been craving a good sandwich and just came across this (to pin immediately!), thanks!
Sweet Basil
Oh man, I love that thing
The Café Sucré Farine
Yum! Sounds delish! Your pictures are making me drool – not good for the computer 🙂
Budget Gourmet Mom
I wish I could have attended that event! I have a crazy love affair with cheese. That sandwich looks amazingly delicious!
Barbara Bakes
Sounds like a fun event. This is a sandwich that I would love too. I'll know where to go when I need to borrow cheese now!