Culinarytherapy: The Girl's Guide to Food for Every Mood

From the co-author of Cinematherapy, Advanced Cinematherapy and Bibliotherapy comes a fluffy and spirited guide to complimenting moods with foods. A damsel down on her luck needs a good old-fashioned comfort food, West reasons, while a happy heroine ought to celebrate with something divine. In her chapter on""Diva Dishes,"" West provides detailed instructions for""Glamour with a Can Opener Picnic"": ingredients for dining al fresco include caviar, champagne and cans of""really expensive and preferably imported delicacies."" From the""Recipes for Revenge"" chapter comes""Nursing a Grudge Green Chili"" and a deliciously doughy recipe for""Fried Men"" that functions""like an edible voodoo doll."" Though gimmicky in an amusing way, at times the book feels a bit haphazard, combining, as it does, dumb blonde jokes, a brief history of Jell-O, quotes from Aristotle and Abraham Lincoln on friendship, movie recommendations and assorted other tidbits. The recipes included rarely cover new terrain (Becky's Best Mac and Cheese and Teacher's Pet Apple Tart, for example, are good but standard fare). But West shines in other moments, such in her budget""Day Late and a Dollar Short"" meals; her section on""Things You Really Need in Your Pantry When Things Get Scary"" is a helpful and humorous shopping list for the desperate, and includes Crisco""so you can still lubricate things even when you're out of butter"" and tomato puree,""because tomato sauce is a very forgiving medium."" With its pink typeface and blithe essentialism (for women,""food is a launching pad into a wilderness of physical, psychological, and emotional complexity,"" while for men, West a cheeseburger is just a cheeseburger) this is better gag gift than true guide, of course, and it offers plenty of frothy fun.