Patternmaking for Fashion Design, candied orange peel

My copy of Patternmaking for Fashion Design arrived yesterday!  It’s a 700+ page book that (if you believe the reviews) is the book for designing your own sewing patterns.  I’ve been paging through it and it looks like exactly what I’ve been searching for – a book that explains not only how to do virtually any pattern, but also the principles behind flat patternmaking.  I’m excited.  Once all the chocolatiering is done, I plan to start in on this book…it will help me understand how to design my own stuff, and I can study it in the mornings before B. gets up (a perennial problem, since I get up 2 hours before he does and can’t do anything noisy before he gets up, for fear of disturbing him – leaves an awful lot of time to fill).

Meanwhile, the spiced orange peel came out okay – not as strongly spiced as I would have liked, but definitely well-candied.  The disappointment, which I suppose is a bit illogical, is that it tastes like…ta-da…orange peel, only candied.  The candied bergamot peel was so wonderful that I was hoping for something somewhat less pedestrian, what with the spices and all.  Nonetheless I think it should pair nicely with chocolate.  Next I will try candying lime peel and lemon peel, plus maybe some tangerine peel if I can find any.  Never hurts to try new things!

Today I go south, to the Mountain View farmer’s market.  There’s a vendor there who sells beautiful dried apricots and dried pears, perfect for dipping into chocolate.  Also to the Milk Pail Market, where I plan to get 1/2 gallon of manufacturing cream, for making caramels, testing truffle flavors, etc. – I would get more (I’ll need about a gallon in toto) but I’m not doing the perishable truffles until week after next, so I’ll buy more then.