Think cheese for me, please!
Last night was pretty funny. I was looking around for printable coupons & Bill asks me if I could find one for him. It was his one & only bargain request, that I find a coupon for Tillamook cheese - "The Best Cheese in The World". Or so he says.

When we lived in Portland, we ate Tillamook cheese (& other dairy products: ICE CREAM at the coast!) regularly. Bill is a meat & cheese kind of guy & apparently he is obsessed with the Tillamook brand.

I went to their website since that was the #1 place to look for coupons & what should I find? The Tillamook macaroni & cheese cook-off! I had no idea Tillamook had a cooking competition, let alone a macaroni & cheese cook-off! I have an original baked mac n' cheese recipe that I've made for my massage friend after the birth of her second kiddo & according to her husband, it was the best mac n' cheese he's ever had. Since I've already made it, I made a few changes to make it a little more original & unique then I went ahead & submitted it this afternoon (the deadline is the 16th).

This is a two part cook-off. If I get picked for the regional finals, I'll drive down to The Big City to compete. If I win, I'll receive 25 pounds of Tillamook cheese & $1,000. Then Tillamook will fly me out to Portland to compete in the Grand Finale cook-off where I would have a chance to win $5,000.

Of all of the cooking competitions, this is the one I want to win the most (well, next to the Better Burger $50,000 grand prize). It would give me a chance to go back to Portland for free & I could see my sisters & niece. I want to go so bad!!

I told Bill about the prizes & he laughed at the 25 POUNDS of cheese. "If we won 25 pounds of cheese, I wouldn't sh** for a month! Can you freeze cheese?" Holy hell, I've never laughed so hard. He has a point though. That's a lot of cheese.

So, I'll know if I make it if I get notified by September 28th to participate in the first cook-off on October 16th. I hope I win because I really, really, really want to.