In the Live Release Event that I hosted on February 8 (at the 15:54 minute mark), I shared a personal recipe sharing experience. This experience was one of the factors that inspired me to add the new "I Made This" feature to Cook'n. You can watch it here:

As you can see, before we added the "I Made This" feature to Cook'n, my siblings and I would often shoot a photo of the food we made and text it to the family group.

But, now that we added the new "I Made This" feature, my siblings and I started sharing our Made recipes in Cook'n instead. Then, our recipes started getting 'Likes!'

We started taking screenshots showing how many 'Likes' we were getting and texting those screenshots to the family group. Then, we kicked it up a notch and started texting those screenshots to the Super Bowl texting thread that has 32 family members on it!

Then, someone discovered the Leaderboards and that took the whole thing to the next level!

Naturally, we started razzing each other because...well...we're competitive and that's how we roll! 😂

For example, my son Danny was laughing at the photo that my son Jackson posted with his Sausage, Egg and Cheese Everything Sandwich recipe.

Jackson pointed out that the photo might be funny...but he was climbing the Likes per Recipe Made Leaderboard...so take that!

My brother Brian shot back and teased him because the recipe he posted was a simple Bagel recipe.

Jackson replied and said "the people have spoken, Brian!"

Then, he said "get a profile picture, Brian, before you start smack talkin my bagel recipe!" 😂 😂 😂

We teased Brian because, at the time, he was in the 10th position on the Likes per Recipe Made Leaderboard and, at the time, he only had a placeholder image for his avatar.

We said "You don't know what you're typing into that computer, Brian." 😂 😂

So, Brian updated his profile picture (his avatar). He said "That was the Cook'nest photo I had." Then, he texted and said "That guy literally looks like he knows how to Cook'n." 😂

Next, he posted a Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe with the following, tantalizing comment:

Kathy responded and said "ChatGPT much?" And, of course, we all laughed because we knew that there was no way Brian wrote that text.

More and more family members started getting into the action.

My niece, Azure, couldn't remember her password. She couldn't remember if she logged into Cook'n by tapping "Sign in with Apple" or "Sign in with Google" or if she manually entered her email address and password. As a result of her confusion, she ended up with multiple accounts.

At that point, some family members cried foul accusing her of trying to game the system by creating more than one account so she could inflate her score by Liking her own recipes. 😂 😂

We knew this wasn't the case because Azure is such a sweetheart and wouldn't do something like that. That's one of the things that made it so funny! 😂

I sent a message and said "Where's Aunt Kimmie's recipes?" because my sister Kim is a great cook. And, she is the most passionate Cook'n user in the family but she hadn't posted any Made recipes yet.

Kim is an empty nester now and just got a job teaching at the local school. She replied and said "What's a recipe again? Aunt Kimmie forgot how to cook cause she's never home to cook anymore."

My brother Brian said "Seriously! Uncle Jeff is fading away to nothing over there! Poor guy" (he was teasing cuz Kim's husband Jeff is not skinny).

My daughter Brennah saw everyone having fun and realized that she has some good recipes too.

So, she started posting some of hers and now she is in the 9th position on the Likes per Recipe Made Leaderboard...

After my daughter-in-law Cecilia posted a recipe, my brother Brian texted and complained saying "Okay...Cecilia did NOT just make Zupa Toscana at 10:26 am! She's doin it again!"

Cecilia replied and said "It says, 'Recipes Made,' Brian, not necessarily 'Recipes Recently Made.' My competitive nature needs me to post my good stuff now... don't worry though--I've reached my daily limit for today." 😝

Brian replied and said "Game on!" and he encouraged his son Apollo to join so Apollo would 'Like' his recipes.

Apollo said "I gotta get Cook'n man. I made a bomb shepherd's pie yesterday." But, he got a little confused and said...

I pointed out that I am in the #1 position for "Most Liked" with my Breakfast Sausage Casserole recipe.

But, Kathy took exception to this. She said "hey! that's my recipe! You didn't even make that!" 😂

I said "well...you snooze you lose! You better start shooting photos and posting your recipes if you want to win!" 😂

She was like "ok...how do I do it?" I said "open your recipe and tap 'I Made This'". She opened Cook'n and sheepishly said "Oh...haha...that's easy." And, now Kathy is already in the 8th spot on the Likes per Recipe Made Leaderboard!

Jackson's wife Makenzie is at the top of the Likes per Recipe Made Leaderboard...but she hasn't learned how to boast and brag about it yet. She's still pretty new to the family. 😁

The recipes posted by my daughter-in-law Cecilia (Danny's wife) and my brother Brian are #1 and #2 in Trending...

Needless to say, we're having a BLAST with Cook'n! We're checking the Leaderboards regularly. We're launching the app and sorting recipes by Most Liked and Trending to see who is in the lead. And, whenever there's a lead change, we take a screenshot and text it to the group. We are having so much fun!

At one point, my brother commented and asked if Cook'n users would wonder if we were gaming the system since there are so many Oaks' at the top of these Leaderboards and Trending reports. I said "no worries...this is awesome. Every family should do this!" And, I mean that! If you want to have fun with your family, share some delicious recipes, and enjoy some super yummy meals, get Cook'n Good Look'n!

If you want to do it without worrying about what other Cook'n users are doing, just make sure that you and your family members are all "Cook'n Friends" with each other. Then, simply select the "Friends" option in the "Show" menu like this:

This will filter the results so the Most Liked and Trending recipes show only your Cook'n friends.

As you can tell, we are having such a good time with this. I hope you have as much fun as we are!!

    Dan Oaks
    Founder of DVO Enterprises
    Creator of Cook'n
    Father of 5. Husband of 1.
    Monthly Newsletter Contributor since 2024
    Email the author! dan@dvo.com