by Dale Stromberg

Depression can feel like being the body during an out-of-body experience. Or like being a rickety boat sailing a beam sea. You can find it an ordeal to do even the simplest things—like eating. This cookbook understands that you might be broke or even poor, beaten down by fatigue, unable to cope with basic physical tasks, and/or lacking the wherewithal to open a jar of jam. The book prods you, with a gentle humour that is sympathetic to your depressive paralysis, to get something down your gullet. 

Some of the recipes here satisfy the minimum requirements of what might be called actual recipes—but then there are “Peanut Butter on a Spoon” or “Eat a Dill Pickle Out of the Jar While Standing in Front of the Fridge”. How do these qualify as recipes? Well, I myself have experienced spirits low enough that basic life tasks went undone simply because there was nobody standing there telling me, “Now do this. Next do that.” The Sad Bastard Cookbook recognises that, some days, you’re probably going to max out simply by taking one thing (hopefully not mouldy or expired) from your cupboard and choking it down raw. 

But remember, you could take not one but two things, or at the God-Tier level three things, combine them, zap them in the microwave, and satisfy basic caloric intake requirements in a slightly less sorry-ass way, even as you continue to stagger under the crushing burden of your depression. Which is a way, maybe, to be slightly less sad.

Get your free e-book PDF here.