Welcome to Cook with Us #9!

It's hard to believe we're already on CwU #9! It's been quite a fun ride and the Cook with Us team - @chefsteve, @pandamama and @offoodandart - is truly thankful for all the support we've received. We have amazing contestants, delicious recipes and wonderful stories each and every week!

What's Happening

Please check our latest newsletter to catch what's new with Cook with Us. Worth noting is that we will soon have our Discord channel up and running so watch for more news about it. This will be a great way for our community to connect with each other.

The theme for Cook with Us #9: Mexican/Cinco de Mayo

Plus mystery theme: Avocado

The Cinco de Mayo holiday celebrates the date in 1862 that Mexico defeated the French in the battle of Puebla. Today, in the United States, the holiday is mainly about celebrating Mexican culture and food. Mexican cuisine has a long history and a wide variety of dishes. Mexican dishes range from light and fresh ceviches to rich and complex moles. Mexican cuisine has so many incredible ingredients too. From different types of corn and chilis to the more exotic huitlacoche fungus and grasshoppers. This week we would like to see your favorite homemade Mexican dish.

Also this week, our mystery theme is a featured ingredient, the avocado. The way this works is that you can make a Mexican dish OR any dish you like using avocado or you can combine the featured ingredient with the weekly theme. It is up to you. The most important thing to remember is to have fun! We look forward to reading your entries and we encourage you to read and support the other entries in the Cook with Us community.

If anyone else has a suggestion for a theme, we'd be happy to hear it.

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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. We are pleased to announce the following prizes for this challenge:

• First place - 5 SBD

• Second place - 3 SBD

• Third place - 1 SBD

The following, if participating in Cook with Us #9, will be competing in the Winners' Circle, including whoever wins 1st place in Cook with Us #8. There will be one winner from the Winners' Circle and will be awarded 5 SBD.

• @ground2feet

• @loveself

• @foodforsoul

• @whattheduck

• @deimus

• @blackberryskunk

• @cooknbake

• 1st place winner of CwU #8

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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 #9 – Name of your dish. For example, Cook with Us #9 - Holy Guacamole.

• 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 there is a calendar 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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The Cook with Us Calendar

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Acknowledgements

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.

We are delighted with the caricatures made for us by @bazbiscuit and already people are asking where they can get these delightful little characters. 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.

Please follow @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.

Thank you to @curie and @hendrikdegrote for upvoting one of our South African contestants.

@gavvet please have a look at your fellow South Africans doing so well in our contest.

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