Lots of odds and ends . . .

My mind and research has been racing, and I wanted to take some time to get some stuff down in print.

As for the outfit question from my last post, I came up with a solution.  Johnny Depp again comes to the costume rescue:

Time to buy Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  (Love the high-heel boots.)

Back to business.  I now have in my possession reprints of two Victorian-era cookbooks.  A candy making book written is 1889 and the Fanny Farmer Cookbook from 1898.  I'll be able to use these to get started.

Other candy books I have been reading say I need to keep my work area at 68 degrees with under 40% humidity.  During shopping on Saturday, I'm going to have to buy a couple of those thermometer/barometer thingies, one for the work area and one for the kitchen.

I also have started looking into tempering chocolate, which, by the by, was invented about the same time that French creams were invented.

I've also begun thinking about the definition of candy.  What is candy?  How does it differ from a confection?  My theory is a true candy involves boiled sugar, but I have to do more research to figure this out.

I'm hoping within a week or two to have my first cooking experiments done.