The "World's Saddest Cookbook" (PHOTO)

From Reddit user sibtiger, via Adam Kuban at Serious Eats:

"When my parents were dating, and starting to get serious, my dad got this book for my mom for her birthday. In typical engineer logic he explained that, since she was living on her own at the time, it would obviously be useful. It's amazing how many times I came close to not existing."

What. A. Photo shoot.

As luck would have it, there are multiple (3) videos on the internet of this cookbook's author microwave-cooking. Watch them below! Then read Videogum's take.

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Microwave Breakfast For One, with Marie T. Smith

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From the "Good Day!" morning show in Orlando, Florida, July 11, 1986

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From the "Good Day!" morning show in Orlando, Florida, July 11, 1986

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Comments

[janie@atthelake]

09:58 AM on 04/20/2010

Still the best comment on this thread is from ATTIKAI, who said


"Here, I fixed the cover"

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k101/grappler5/cooking.jpg

[sistaelle]

12:22 AM on 04/20/2010

What exactly is sad about people making healthy meals with real food and not wasting any?
Is it sad because it's assumed the person is dining alone?
It's pathetic that people are so needy that they can't be happy on their own.
This would be a great book for using at ones office,
for folks who prefer different dishes at meal time, kids away at school,
for couples without children who want simple, good and easy recipes easy to double, etc.
Most people will be "on their own" at some point. Are they supposed to starve? Eat out every night?
Happily, there's no such thing as bad publicity. The book will no doubt be back on the best seller list shortly.

[raker]

01:52 PM on 04/19/2010

This makes me laugh. So sad. And it's sad that people think that having to wash a pan is so horrible that they'd rather eat ghastly food prepared in a microwave. And as a bonus, it sounds like the host's first day on the job. She's just a tad unpolished.

[tector]

06:27 PM on 04/18/2010

the beauty of cooking for one is that it requires no compromise. you eat what you want to eat and don't have to hear " yuk i don't like that. can't we have calf's brains and eggplant instead?" arguments avoided, dinner eaten peacefully when it suits you and digested without any stress.

[liarsclub75]

05:30 PM on 04/18/2010

I see a lot of old microwave cookbooks at thrift stores. Many have prime rib or turkey on the cover. I guess they had high hopes at the time. Reminds me of that movie with Tyne Daily where she microwaved the Thanksgiving turkey.

[worldfreeofwar]

02:01 PM on 04/18/2010

sorry hpost, you're pathetic in your mockery. take on a real 'sad' thing, like people with no food, or electricity. you're nothing but privileged, spoiled... grow up before you 'post'. everybody microwaves, get over it. I feel bad for this woman's family that you're making fun of.

[sheoples]

10:04 AM on 04/16/2010

problem is this is reality .............most offices/work places don't have working stove where people can cook their lunch or snack...............so most offices resort to microwave

america needs to realize that cooking over a stove can be fast. pasta under 5 minutes..........same time as nuking an unhealthy manufactored plastic food.

[Imasqre]

01:18 PM on 04/15/2010

"It's amazing how many times I came close to not existing."

LOL!!

[jeanmorales]

01:09 PM on 04/15/2010

I think what is sadder than this cookbook is the fact that most Americans don't cook anymore. We buy heat up meals and fast-food. I think the cookbook is useful for college students, like myself. I usually eat alone, and, since I live in a dorm, I only have a microwave to use. And No, I am not lonely. I have a wonderful bf and friends, but he lives at home and they all have their own dorms to eat in. (Just making it clear, before someone jokes that I am a lonely person)

[hungrycoyote]

12:42 AM on 04/15/2010

The woman on the cover and author of the book is my mother. She spent 10 years developing and kitchen testing the almost 300 recipes. She died in 1987, two years after she enjoyed seeing her labor of love published. Mom developed the book because she foresaw that we would become a society of smaller households (one or two people), especially when the baby-boomers' children grew up and left the nest. Over thirty years ago, my Mother believed that there would be a need for this type of book years into the future. It is a testament to her foresight that Microwave Cooking for One is still in print after 24 years, when other microwave cookbooks from that era have long been out of print.

Most recipes are written for four or six. Have you ever tried to take a recipe for six, and divide by three to make a meal for two? It doesn't come out right. However, if you start with a recipe for one from Mom's book and double it, you can easily make a delicious meal for two ... and fast in the microwave.

I invite your readers to go to the Contents & Recipes (http://www.microwavecookingforone.com/Content.html) section and try doubling a few of the recipes, and then tell me how sad my mother's book is. The stuffed shrimp recipe is absolutely delicious!

Tracy Grant

[hungrycoyote]

12:44 AM on 04/15/2010

... continuing ...

People from all walks of life and for a myriad of reasons live alone. Microwave Cooking for One was my mother's gift to them to help make their lives better. At the time Microwave Cooking for One was published in 1986, Mom was volunteering for an organization that worked with displaced homemakers; women who for a variety of reasons, found themselves alone after years of caring for their families. She felt strongly that food is the center of life, and that these newly single women deserved to take care of themselves as they had for others for so many years. So she invited these women into her home and gave them an all-day microwave cooking class, teaching them 30 basic microwave recipes.

I understand how people who have never lived alone can look at the title of the book and laugh. But the truth is that whether by choice or circumstance there are a lot of people in our society who are faced with the task of cooking just for themselves. Microwave Cooking for One is the tool they need to conveniently prepare healthy meals fast and economically.

Thank you, again, for your "The World's Saddest Cookbook" award. While those readers in relationships may laugh in relief that this book is not for them (although it easily could be ... just multiply the recipes), I'm sure many people who can use the book have found it. I am sincerely grateful!

Tracy Grant

[EvieMichael]

08:18 AM on 04/16/2010

Hi Tracy! That was a very nice post. While having a sense of humor about the article, you let us behind the scenes of a good woman with a genuinely nice mission. :)
May your mom rest in peace.

[liarsclub75]

05:33 PM on 04/18/2010

Thanks for your nice post Tracy. I love to cook but there are just 2 of us at home. Recipes for 4-6 people are just too much. Also when my husband was in the Navy, I was alone for 6 months. Your mother's cookbook may have been helpful to me then.

[brooklyncitizen]

05:31 PM on 04/14/2010

I think it is the "Microwave" part of the title that underscores the pathos.

[sempronia]

10:49 AM on 04/14/2010

My grandmother still uses her very large 1980s (i.e. old-as-I-am) microwave for some family dishes, like artichokes. I don't actually own a microwave, but it's refreshing to see portions for one.

On a side note, why would it necessarily be sad to live alone? I do by choice -- I don't have to deal with other people's messes, I don't get awakened by them, I don't have to share things, and I can slough around Saturday mornings in my underwear. I was probably sadder when I was picking up after my lazy ex!

[brooklyncitizen]

05:33 PM on 04/14/2010

Happy singlehood is way better than unhappily coupled.

[Amy2010]

10:10 AM on 04/14/2010

The photo is a tear-jerker Though, the book would be useful to me and I'm not sad.

[bobbiisadukefan]

09:36 AM on 04/14/2010

I do not own a microwave...never have and never will!

[NYC07]

07:29 PM on 04/13/2010

Isn't the full title of the book “Microwave Cooking for One....(When Suicide is not an Option)"