Today, The Takeout turns one year old. There’s not much more to say, other than we’re grateful to you for reading, commenting, arguing, giving us grief, heaping praise, offering your wicked smart suggestions, and being part of our community. I speak for Gwen, Kate, and Allison in saying: thank you.

　　A few of our favorite staff-written stories from Year One:

　　Everything I know about life I learned at Al's DeliChances are my life would’ve turned out differently if not for Al’s Deli. I was young and…

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　　A muggle eats her way through Harry Potter's magical universeEditor’s note: For this story, we commissioned The Takeout’s art department for original…

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　　If I can make the best pizza dough of my life, you can tooWelcome to Pizza School, in which pizza-making amateur Gwen Ihnat learns the secrets from…

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　　A food snob moves to the suburbsFor six years, my job was to convince the public I was cool. Others displayed their coolness…

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　　I'll never solve my grandma's green bean casserole recipe, but I won't stop tryingThis isn’t exactly a recipe. There will be a recipe at the end of this page—go ahead and scroll…

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　　A Tom Brady hater tries Tom Brady’s meal kitsI hate Tom Brady, and I hate meal kits. I hate what they stand for, I hate that they’re symbols of…

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　　Gwen’s Garbage Chicken Deluxe is ugly deliciousI don’t rave about too many appliances, but I absolutely love my Crock-Pot. I honestly used to be a

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