Happy Birthday Larry Kart!

[Bright Moments]

happy birthday!!!

[BruceH]

Hope you had a very happy birthday, Larry.

[Dan Gould]

:party:

[Larry Kart]

Good birthday. Best piece of chocolate cake I ever ate.

[Chuck Nessa]

Hmm. They give old guys cake where you live?

[David Ayers]

I told them it was *jazz* you'd been caring for all this time but they thought 'children' would play better with the local press. As if.

[Larry Kart]

Hmm. They give old guys cake where you live?

It was baked for me, by a woman who's obsessed with making the perfect chocolate cake. I think she got it.

[JSngry]

Does she obsess over all her cooking the way she does the chocolate cake?

Hey, if madam can burn, that should not be taken lightly in this day and time!

[Larry Kart]

Does she obsess over all her cooking the way she does the chocolate cake?

Actually, no. As someone who is a very good cook explained to me, cooking and baking are two very different worlds/mind sets. That may be why most upscale restaurants have a chef and a baked goods person (whatever the term for the latter is).

[JSngry]

Yeah, baking is chemistry above all else, pure and simple. Cooking is much less tied to the empirical.

[Larry Kart]

Yeah, baking is chemistry above all else, pure and simple. Cooking is much less tied to the empirical.

I don't get the impression from my friend the chocolate-cake fanatic that the above is true. Her approach -- and I've observed her at it -- is highly empirical; nothing comes out quite the same twice. I'll ask my chef friend to explain what he thinks the differences are.

[JSngry]

All the bakers in my life tell me that the proportions of ingredients are crucial to a successful outcome due to the chemistry involved, much more so than with meats and vegetables and asphalt and such.

Same thing holds true for the mixing and the oven temp and the pan-greasing and all that...even things like altitude and humidity come into play. It's one giant ongoing chemical reaction, baking is. Of course, all cooking is to one extent or another, but there are people who bake well, people who cook well, and not all that many who do both equally well. It's a knack!

That's just what they tell me, though. It might be one giant chain-yank, but it seems logical on the surface, the whole "chemistry" thing. I mean, you start throwing around with stuff like baking powder, you got some science class stuff right off the bat!

[GA Russell]

Happy Birthday 2016 Larry!

[paul secor]

I guess we're late, But hope you had a great birthday, Larry!

[Larry Kart]

Thanks. A good birthday it was.

[JSngry]

What did you have to eat? Anything celebratory? 

[Larry Kart]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

What did you have to eat? Anything celebratory? 

Delicious skirt steak with mashed potatoes and crinkly fried onions at a local restaurant that's been around since 1947 -- a place with veteran waitresses (though not the original ones), red leather booths, and a central bar area where I assume some elders start drinking at 5 p.m. and are poured out at closing time. They brought me a hot slice of apple pie a la mode gratis with two candles ( a "7" and a "4") on top for dessert. My stepson had an anchovy pizza, my wife had scallops with pasta.

[JSngry]

YEAH!

[sidewinder]

Belated Happy Birthday !   The apple pie sounds good.

[page]

Yes, it does. Sorry to have missed your birthday. I hope it was a good one!

[David Ayers]

I can't see the bithday reminders any more...

 

HB2U!

[Tim McG]

Happy Belateds!

Hope it was a great Birthday.

[GA Russell]

Happy Birthday 2017 Larry!

[mjzee]

All the best, Larry!

[Larry Kart]

Thanks to all.