The Achewood Cookbook and other things I'm reading

The end of the semester is coming up fast but I'm still finding time to do some unrelated reading.

Yesterday, after reading a review of The Achewood Cookbook on the Redshirt Knitting Blog, I went over to the Achewood site and bought it. The Teen has been wanting to learn to cook more than scrambled eggs and chocolate chip cookies, but what I consider basic and what she considers basic doesn't mesh so well. Last night I made Chicken Piccata, which I think is easy and she thinks is whoa back up and do I really have to touch raw chicken with my hands?

I missed the memo about Achewood and so hadn't even read a single comic strip until I went over to buy the cookbook. Like Erika, I don't really "get" most of the humor, but I do get that this is a great way to explain how to cut potatoes for home fries:

The Right Cut

The home fry potato should be cut into uniform cubes about the size of computer keyboard keys. This makes them big enough to get a crispy surface while just turning creamy soft on the inside. It also makes them easier to pick up with a fork and stick some eggs with. Much smaller and they'd be trouble to a fork.

(A meditation on home fries, thoughts & recipe by Roast Beef)

That the cookbook was, in a sense, inspired by The French Laundry Cookbook, I appreciate deeply, and having been an owner of a copy of The Moosewood Cookbook, I look forward to comparing Chris Onstad's take on a basic cookbook with Mollie Katzen's.

The Achewood Cookbook

Chris Onstad's career as an online cartoonist is related some to an ongoing conversation on Ravelry about "copyleft" and other alternative business models, like "1,000 True Fans." John Scalzi's blog post, The Problem With 1,000 True Fans, Robert Rich's blog post 1000 True Fans (an answer), and the recent NY Times Magazine article "Sex, Drugs, and Updating Your Blog" by Clive Thompson (Jonathan Coulton and other internet-based musicians on how they make their living) have been giving me food for thought. Without the internet, I don't think I would have gotten into knit/crochet design work. I didn't know how things would develop - I started my own blog primarily because it's part of the business plan, such as it is. Mostly it was because Jodi Green said something to me along the lines of "dude, you are too hard to find" and she was right. Some of this business is very new territory, and so much of it I could not have anticipated. Right now I think I'm lucky that knit/crochet design is not my primary job, and I'm really glad that the potential for me to grow slowly is there. I'm still finding out what works for me and makes other people happy too.