Throwback: Sugar Candy

Transitioning to my teen years, I started to watch cooking shows in the Lifestyle Network. For a while, I considered going to cooking school instead of taking a four-year course. 

One summer afternoon, my brother and I were lazily watching one of the cooking shows. I can't remember which one it was, but it involved sugar candies. We were so astounded at how sugar, when stretched, became a wondrous candy that people enjoyed. 

With an idea, some sugar, blue food coloring, and cane vinegar, we set out our plan. We also wanted to create that sugar concoction with our bare hands. I mixed the sugar together with vinegar, and my brother, probably only 11 or 12 by then, watched with excitement at the prospect of our idea. I mixed and mixed with all my might, making sure that the sugar was boiling. My brother added a few drops of the blue food coloring, and we watched the clear, boiling sugar turn a vivid blue.

I turned off the heat, and poured a bit of the sugar mixture on mom's baking pan. To my dismay, it did not turn the same way as we saw in TV. I ran out of the house, along with the pan of sugar mixture, and poured the contents on the ground, praying that mom wouldn't see it.

My brother and I washed the pans in disappointment, tasting the sugar before then. What went wrong, we wondered. We were so close.

Looking back, we may have missed some things: patience and hard work. And that's what we need now.