Welcome to Cook with Us #21!

The theme for Cook with Us #21:

The Great Outdoors

Mystery Theme: Seafood

This week’s theme at Cook with Us is “The Great Outdoors” with special guest judge @jaybird. That’s right folks, we are handing over the reins this week to the “king of sandwiches” @jaybird. @jaybird is the man behind the super popular Steemit Sandwich Contest. His contest has just passed the one year mark! If you have not seen his contest then please head over to @jaybird’s page and show him some support by entering his contest and giving some upvotes!

@jaybird was interested in seeing a grilling theme so we opened it up to all types of outdoor cooking. We want to see what you cook when there is no roof above your head. This can be as simple as using your backyard grill or as elaborate as an Argentinian asado. You can show us your best tailgating meal or deep woods camping foods. In the States, we like to deep-fry whole turkeys outside and of course we have perfected the craft of low and slow BBQ. In southeast Asia people often have outdoor kitchens and cook all of their meals outside. I (@chefsteve) was once lucky to go to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and made mechoui (whole spit-roasted lamb) over a fire. In Mexico people make tacos and menudo in simple carts on the street. Even today when most people have a comfortable home to live in, we still love to eat foods cooked outside over a fire. It must be something deep within our souls that connects us to our ancestors and the original way to cook.

We understand that some people may live in a cold climate at this time of year and cannot cook outdoors. If you are in this situation, we are offering a second theme. @jaybird mentioned that he would also like to see a seafood theme. So, that is what we will offer. You may cook a seafood dish of your choice.

Our Cook with Us community is located all across the world and you all have interesting recipes and stories to share. We love to hear all about the ingredients, techniques, history and stories behind your dishes. This really helps us understand where you come from and what a meal is like where you live. Whether you are following the great outdoors theme or the seafood theme we have only one rule this week.... Please do not make a sandwich! @jaybird has spent the last 53 weeks judging sandwiches! Let's give him a break from his favorite meal!

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The Cook with Us Calendar

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The Cook with Us Contest

The Cook with Us team - @chefsteve , @pandamama and @offoodandart - is very excited to welcome you and look forward to getting to know you as we cook or create dishes together. It is our intention to build a community of people that enjoy cooking and sharing with each other.

The contest is divided into two groups. The first group is the General Pool and the second is the Winners' Circle. Each group will have three winners ranking from 1st place to 3rd place. Every contestant starts in the General Pool. The 1st place winner in the General Pool advances to the Winners' Circle in the next round.

We are pleased to announce the following prizes for each group:

• First place - 5 SBD

• Second place - 3 SBD

• Third place - 1 SBD

Winners' Circle

The following, if participating in Cook with Us #21, will be competing in the Winners' Circle.

• @ground2feet

• @loveself

• @foodforsoul

• @whattheduck

• @deimus

• @blackberryskunk

• @cooknbake

• @dianadee

• @alansthoughs

• @lizelle

• @gladysstillwagon

• @carolynstahl

• @plantstoplanks

• @pusteblume

• @birdsinparadise

• @foodflaneur

• @rawadventuress

• @saimondonato

• @leelektrik

• 1st place winner of CwU #20 general pool

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Cook with Us Official Contest Rules

Please take some time to review the contest rules below. We have made a few changes. We understand that a lot of work is put into every post and we do not want to disqualify anyone for not following the rules. If you are unsure about any of them, just ask us for some clarification. We will be happy to help you.

Contest Entry Rules

• The title of your post should look like this: Cook with Us #21 - Name of your dish. For example, Cook with Us #21 - Grilled Portabello Mushrooms.

• The first tag on your entry must be: cookwithus.

• Upvote and resteem this @cookwithus post that you are submitting an entry for.

• The first time you enter this competition, submit a proof photo. This can be in the form of a handwritten note with your Steemit name, the name of the dish, and the date with your entry - or it can be a photograph of yourself with your dish. Thereafter, you will not need a proof photograph going forward as we will know who you are. Please do not use Photoshop for the proof photo.

• Include a description of the dish. Some examples are the taste of the dish, its origin, or the story behind it.

• Describe why your dish works. Give a brief description about why you put these ingredients together.

• Post a link to your entry in the comments section of the weekly challenge. This is the post that announces the start of the week's contest

• You can only enter one dish per entry (a dish means a single version. Not one dish two or three ways). You may only enter one entry per week.

General Contest Rules

• Contest ends every Monday 12:00 UTC.

• Results will be published no later than Thursday 12:00 UTC, three days after the contest is closed.

• Entries do not have to be original. However, if not original, please provide the source.

• While the calendar may be showing future themes, entries can only be submitted for the current week's contest and only after the official post for the contest is made. Entries submitted before the official start date or after the deadline will not be considered valid entries.

• The Cook with Us contest will cover many topics and disciplines. Make sure you check for weekly contest rules that may change due to the nature of the challenge.

• By entering @cookwithus, the contestant agrees to their material being used by the organizers for any purposes and will not be compensated should the material be published. But you, the author/photographer, will be given written credit.

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Cook with Us is on Discord

To join, please follow the steps below.

- Create a Discord account if first time on Discord. It's best to use your Steemit username.

- Download the Discord app which can be found here.

- Click on this link to join the Cook with Us channel.

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Acknowledgements

Another donation has come in from @sneaky-ninja. Thank you very much! Huge apologies for giving acknowledgement to the wrong person - who copied the sneaky-ninja name without the hyphen. We appreciate this most generous gift to our rewards pool.

Thanks for the delegation of 50SP from @goldendawne who runs a weekly curation program and has acknowledged several of our contestants already. This is a very much appreciated delegation.

Thank you to @curie for voting for our wonderful contestants. This is a great privilege for us to see their posts being acknowledged.

@zord189 gave an interesting new sponsorship called Steem Basic Income, to @cookwithus winner @birdsinparadise. @birdsinparadise has a lifetime vote from Steem Basic Income to encourage her to keep posting. This generous sponsorship was in addition to the weekly 5 SBD award for first place. Thank you @zord189!

A donation also came in from @sneaky-ninja for the month of July and again for the month of August - thank you so very much and @jedau also kindly made a donation to CwU and gave us a shout out. You can read his shout out post HERE.

There were many people that helped us to get this competition up and running. We would like to say a BIG thank you to them all and express our sincere gratitude for their contributions.

Please show your support for @aggroed by voting for him as a witness.

Thanks to @docsmith for the generous donation of a beautiful custom-made knife specifically crafted for Cook with Us.

We are delighted with the caricatures made for us by @bazbiscuit. Thank you Barry!

@jacklimberis made our banner and gif for us. Thank you Jack - we really appreciate all the hard and beautiful work!

Thank you @edenmichelle for making the youtube video for us. A huge thanks as well to @leelektrik for creating our logo.

Thank you VIEWLY for the View Token prizes that we will give to our contestants who make a little video of their recipes.

Please follow @goldendawne,@DocSmith, @jedau, @zord189, @jznsamuel, @sneaky-ninja, @jacklimberis, @bazbiscuit, @edenmichelle, @theywillkillyou, @world5list, @world-travel-pro, and @heyitshaas. We hope to add to this list of supporters of our competition. If you would like to be a supporter of @cookwithus, please contact us. We would love to hear from you.

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