Who needs the candy store?

I made nougat using this recipe:
http://www.candymaking.net/Nougat.html
It was really easy. My mom would never allow me to cook candy when I was younger; she figured I'd mess up the kitchen and come out with a sticky mess. The one time I tried to cook candy in her kitchen, that's exactly what happened. It wasn't until years later that I figured out why I couldn't cook candy in my mother's kitchen, and why she had never successfully cooked candy either:
YOU NEED A CANDY THERMOMETER.
Duh. So now I can cook candy. It's remarkably simple; you just do what the recipe says and take it off the heat at the right moment.
I love cooking candy. Some recipes you read through and you can imagine exactly how the food will turn out. Not so with candy. These recipes you read through and think, "How in the world will that mess turn into the candy we know and love?" But it does. Egg whites turn into froth; syrup turns into sticky solid stuff; put them together and it turns white and becomes nougat. Amazing.