Who’s the Mac daddy?

Slice readers have been bragging about their favorite macaroni and cheese recipes over the past few weeks. Now, here’s a chance for a creative cook to win up to $5,000 for those yummy dishes in the Tillamook macaroni and cheese recipe contest.

Send your best macaroni and cheese recipe to the judges at Tillamook before St. Patrick’s Day and you could qualify for the final cook-off at McCormick & Schmick’s Harborside Restaurant in Seattle next month. Entries must be postmarked by Friday, March 17, or e-mailed before midnight March 20 for a chance to win. The top three finalists will face each other in a cook-off April 11. For more information about the contest, go to www.tillamookcontest.com or call (503) 419-4123.

Look inside today’s Food section for a winning recipe from last year’s contest.

Taste Washington this summer

Make your summer plans now.

Tickets for the fifth-annual Taste Washington Spokane are now on sale. The extravaganza will be held June 11 at the Davenport Hotel. For the uninitiated, Taste Washington is a chance to sample wines from more than 100 Washington wineries and try foods from 30 regional restaurants under one roof. Tickets are $75 each and they can be purchased at Arbor Crest Wine Cellars, Latah Creek Wine Cellars, Peters & Sons, William’s Seafood and Wine and Vino!

The event is sponsored by Sterling Savings Bank and a portion of proceeds will benefit Washington State University Viticulture and Enology Program and the School of Hospitality Business Management Program. Ticket sales will benefit the Davenport District Arts Board. To learn more about the event and purchase tickets online, visit: www.tastewashington.org.

Whole Foods tease

For anyone who didn’t see the February issue of Sunset magazine there’s a tiny orange dot on a map inside that has fueled hopes that a Whole Foods store might someday open in Spokane. (I first read about it on Jennifer Olsen’s local food blog: tasteeverythingonce.blogspot.com.)

Sunset mapped out the hottest places in the West by plotting Starbucks, Craigslist, In-N-Out burgers, Jamba Juice and Whole Foods stores that have opened in the past few years.

And there, on Spokane, is the orange dot for Whole Foods. An asterisk indicates that the Whole Foods locations include store openings between 2004 and 2008. Company officials say they’re not ready to release more information. So, for now, Whole Foods fans will have to keep dreaming.