I am not a cook.

I'm also not much of a food photographer either. So when I was given the assignment to photograph some dishes for a story on "Depression-Era Recipes," I knew I already had my work cut out for me.

The trip to the grocery store gave me a chance to look over the recipes for the first time:

• Shrimp and Celery Salad? The dish itself didn't give me a depressed feeling at all. The hole it left in my pocket after purchasing the ingredients, however, did bring a tear to my eye.

• Whiskey Toddy? Nothing says depression-era like watering down good bourbon and throwing in some sugar. The lemon twist did come off as a bit upbeat though.
• Tuna Noodle Casserole? Finally! Something that not only says, "I'm a cheap sonuvabitch!" but also, "I have nothing left to live for except for fattening comfort foods!"

So I whipped these recipes up in a jiffy and made my best attempt at some gourmet food photography. Seeing as the shrimp and celery salad looked the coolest, I tried to keep the focus on it (my tuna noodle casserole looked a bit too much like tuna noodle vomit).

So, after a couple hours of both slaving in the kitchen and photographing, I actually felt I had made some pretty decent food and photographs. I uploaded them to the flux server, happy to finally have some work to show my editors (even if it was the least important).

 Of course, that wasn't the end of my depression. After viewing the photographs, the editors realized shrimp salad doesn't exactly scream cheap, depression-era recipes. And so these photographs were destined to never be printed, but instead be the inspiration for a cold, sad blog post. One which was fueled by a photographer stuffed on a meal of failed photographs and watered-down bourbon.