LOOK WHAT WE FOUND!!!!

Now, some of you may think, "Oh, it's just cheese, what's the big deal?" but to those of you that are reading this and are from Oregon, you know that this is A HUGE FREAKIN' DEAL. Especially considering where I live now (flat, ugly, soy-smelling Decatur, IL, in case you forgot).

For those of you that aren't from Oregon, let me fill you in:

Tillamook is a county in Oregon that is home to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I remember getting a tour there as a kid and sampling their pumpkin ice cream while looking down through windows at the factory. I also got to sample some cheese curds (amazing), and peruse through the gift shop. It was a magical day. And their cheese and ice cream and all their dairy products are delightful.

Especially their cheese and ice cream.

Now, Nick and I live in Illinois, but we miss Oregon every. Single. Day. We always try to find things that remind us of home, for example, we go to Buffalo Wild Wings or Donnie's Pizza down the street just so we can get some Rogue Brewery beer (Dead Guy, please!). When I visited him in Texas, we bought Mirror Pond Ale and Black Butte Porter (both from Deschutes Brewery) from the liquor store down the street that just so happened to supply it.

We were at the grocery store last night getting stuff for Martha Stewart's mac and cheese (the best recipe for mac EVER), and as I was looking at the specialty cheeses, my eye caught this familiar little logo... but there was only one! My eyes lit up as I picked it up, turned around, and showed Nick, and his reaction was very similar. We love cheese, but we love Tillamook cheese the best :) I quickly scanned the rest of the section and found the stock. They had both sharp white cheddar and regular sharp cheddar - my favesies. So yeah, we may have bought one little block to add to our recipe and another for ourselves. I wanted to stock up on more, but at $4.29 for this little block, I knew we couldn't. Oh, but this cheese is worth every penny, especially considering we never thought we'd see it in Illinois, let alone Decatur of all places!

So, yes, Nick and I were once again reminded of how wonderful Oregon is, and we enjoyed about half of one of those blocks last night, and it was freakin' amazing. We woke up this morning to the smell of rain, since it had stormed during the night, and I smiled because even though I'm far away from home, Oregon is still right here with me :)