you want me to cook!?

Carrie Bradshaw had the right idea: the kitchen should be used for storing clothes, shoes and handbags, not for cooking.  That's why we have phones.  Tonight I tried to attempt 2 goals.  The first was to push myself to do something outside of my comfort zone.  The other goal was to learn how to cook.  I succeeded in going outside of my comfort zone, however my cooking skills might have gotten worse, rather than improving.  

I've seen people make chicken cutlets a million times.  Chicken, eggs, and breadcrumbs.  Easier said than done.  I'm not sure where I went wrong--probably when I decided that it would be a good idea to cook alone.  I cleaned the chicken, put oil in the pan, and dipped the chicken into the correct flavoring.  And then I put it in the pan.  Big mistake.  The oil went flying out, stinging me all over my arms.  Then I smelled the burning.  The bottom of the chicken was starting to burn, and as I went to flip it over, the oil kept jumping onto my skin again.  My first two pieces of chicken were un-edible.  I threw those pieces away, and decided to try again.  I cut my chicken in half to make it thinner, and then went through the whole process again.  This time the chicken cooked all the way through, and didn't burn as much.  I considered that a success, until I sat down to eat.  The chicken had no taste, and the breadcrumb part kept falling off.  

People thought I never learned how to cook because I wasn't interested.  That's not true at all.  I am terrified of raw meat.  Senior year of high school we took a cooking class.  One day we had to make Sloppy Joe's.  Did you know that to make Sloppy Joe's you need to stick your hand into the raw meat and squish it up?  I put on my rubber gloves, stuck my hands into the meat, squeezed and then screamed.  It was the most disgusting feeling ever.  From that day on I refused to touch raw meat--packaged or not.  

But now I am 26 years old, and I thought brave enough to try and cook chicken.  Going outside of my comfort zone? Check!  And it was exhilarating.  I'm proud that I can finally say that I've attempted to cook raw meat.  Learn how to cook?  Epic failure.  Not sure what I did wrong, but it didn't taste right.  I'm sending out a public warning now, if I cook it, don't eat it.