Sequence of events

1. A couple weeks ago, read a cooking blog post about making caramels. Think 'That would be kind of fun, and also nostalgic*! And then I could send them to people! But I'd have to buy a candy thermometer.'
2. Travel travel travel.
3. Get home, buy a candy thermometer and fancy salt.
4. Set up mise (hahaha that was self-deprecating pretension if you didn't catch it.)
5. Slavishly follow recipe except for forgetting to strain out cardamom seeds from cream, oh and EXCEPT FOR THE WHOLE MESS BEING AS DARK AS A WITCH'S HEART.
6. After it cools, slice it into the prettiest triangles. Taste a triangle. Make housemates and their visiting family taste triangles too. I kind of like it**, but the universal verdict is: hell no.
7. Wander around on internet to see if recipe is maybe riddled with typos.
8. Nope, recipe does not appear in any way to be markedly different from every other caramel recipe in the world.
9. Decide have enough leftover ingredients to make a half-batch; completely disregard candy thermometer and go by colour alone.
10. Success! Unanimous approbation of round 2.

Moral of the story: If it's something that people made in home kitchens without fancy equipment, it is probably something that people can still make in home kitchens without fancy equipment. And sometimes instinct/common sense trumps recipes***/the aforementioned fancy equipment.

* My mother used to make macadamia brittle around the holidays. Same family of ideas, right?
** It is bitter, then sweet, then bitter again as you taste it, with scorched cardamom fuzzing around the edges. I like bitter complicated tastes but I'm not going to inflict my preferences on the people to whom I want to send little packages.
*** Also yesterday, I made very pretty cranberry bread, and as I was making it I thought 'Only half a cup of sugar? Surely not,' and indeed, the end result is not particularly sweet. However, I suspect it will make SUPERLATIVE french toast or bread pudding.