Happy Birthday!!

by Carlos Powell

When the 37 Cooks Facebook page was created, a month or two after the group began, there were many options to choose from to categorize us as a group. We chose the "community" category. During our second year, we have truly fulfilled that vision. I have never seen a more talented, harmonious, helpful, hard-working, spirited, oh, and gorgeous (!) group of people, cooks or otherwise, of this size ever! You can call this self-congratulatory, but I call it Utopia!

This year we have seen some amazing recipes from our cooks and our sponsors have been absolutely incredible and so generous!  We also have a new intern! Our first and we love her! She encouraged us to include Instagram in our social media plan and we all LOVE it. Go get on Instagram NOW! It's great! (And follow us @37cooks!) You will see our cooking challenge photos just like on Facebook and Twitter, but you will also see what many of our cooks are up to! 

Did I mention we've made over 950 posts to our blog and have had nearly a quarter of a million pageviews? We we have. Cook, please take a bow! That's a lot of hard work!

Now, where do we go from here? I think our next year will bring about some changes in the behind-the-scenes work we do that will be designed to make life simpler for our cooks and for our tireless group of administrators. We also have plans to add some blog posts of a more personal nature and we have been asked to do some new cookbook reviews by a publisher. But, mostly we will cook and cook and cook! It's what we like to do!  

Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday 37 Cooks! We love you! ~Sandra

P.S. These quotes from some of our members really do reflect the sentiments of us all!

"37 Cooks is a group of creative and caring people whom I consider to be true friends. We have laughed and cried together and had so much fun along this crazy journey... Happy Birthday, 37 Cooks! Here's to many more! *Clink*"

"2 years! Wow. Not to be cliche, but time does fly when you're having fun with people you love! xox"

"Great Fun, Great People, Great Food. I am so privileged to be a part of 37 Cooks. It has been rewarding in so many ways."

"What started as a little adventure I was excited to belong to escalated into a group of people that I really care for, respect and rely on everyday. We have come a long way BABY!"

"I have made some lovely friends during the 2 years I've been a part of 37 Cooks, and my cooking skills and imagination for developing recipes have grown leaps and bounds. Oh, and I've discovered that I can't live without vanilla sugar and Slap Ya Mama seasoning!"

"There have been so many great products we have had the honor to use in our Challenges. Teet's Smoked Meats, The Spice House, Sciabica Olive Oil, Dorot are all things you will now find in my kitchen, along with many other great products. I love that my cooking skills and photography skills have improved, thanks to the group and their helpful tips and encouragement. Definitely have made some awesome friends for life. I would be sad if 37 Cooks was no longer a part of my life."

"Happy Birthday to us! We, as 37 cooks, are a very diverse group of friends, with many different cooking styles! I'm happy that 37 Cooks puts up with my "offal" recipes..... lol!"

"37 Cooks pushes me to be more creative both in our challenges & in every day cooking. I'm so glad to be part of this awesome group of people. Happy Birthday 37 Cooks!"