Things I learned today
 

I can make English Toffee (one of my favorites) anytime I want. All it takes is butter, sugar, salt and vanilla. Who knew it was that easy?

This could be a bad thing.

I'm not going to click. I don't want to know. No. I DO want to know.

I just should not.

Nice to know if you wanted it fresh you could do it. :0)

I knew the ingredients were simple it's the putting together that gets me every time. I've never had a batch of toffee turn out right. So now I only get it when I go to DL, which thankfully for my waist is not that often.

Although now I would love to have some, thanks Moonie!

My favorite thing is that a site called "Cooking For Engineers" even exists. I love the vernacular of the recipe

I learned that the saying, "thing come in threes" should really be changed to, "things come in fours." :rolleyes:

With candy making there is a very particular method that includes timing, tempurature, tools, and some experience (including how much you stir and with how much force). It's not just about the ingredients. The crystaline structure of sugar in fudge can make or break it, for instance.

You know how some people have a green thumb with plants? Candy makers can have what I will now term as the "Sweet Thumb".

Case in point, I am a pretty good cook. Baking not so much, but I can whip up a great batch of pasta, cook the heck out of a chicken, and beat Bobby Flay on the Bar-B-Q. But I took the recipe from a friend from work for her mom's famous lemon bars and made the most horrid mess out of it. I followed it exactly, but it is an odd combination of candy making and baking. I bet if I work on it I could finally get it right. But then again, some things should remain an infrequent special occasion treat.

I looked through a couple of recipes. I have a killer one for lemon bars, but they always stuck so bad that I stopped making them. I never thought of using paper to line the pan.

When you see pictures in a cookbook of bars etc. it's because they line the pan with foil, then when completely cool, lift out the bars, then cut with a very sharp knife. I tried it and surprise surprise......it worked great!

I learned more about leprosy this afternoon than I ever wanted to...

Ewwwww! I used to have nightmares about leprosy (they started after visiting Hawaii in 1971 and learning one of the islands was a leper colony).