Dumped your chicken into the egg....

....at my worse I don't think I could have gone there. I think the worse I've done with meat besides burn it was one time way before I had kids one of my brothers stopped by and wanted to know what I had to cook. I told him someone gave me a leg of lamb that was in the freezer, he said well let's cook it up. I took it out and put it in a pan and water and tossed it into the oven. He asked what I was doing and I said cooking it, he replied that's not cooking it you have to let it thaw, rub some seasonings on it then slow roast that baby up. The reason for the floor is to dry the surface of the meat and give the egg something to bind to otherwise the egg just tends to roll off the meat. You want to save on not using so much oil for frying chicken do the oven method. You'll need a cast iron skillet or any pan you can stick in the oven safely, you pour about a quarter of an inch of oil into the pan, turn the oven on to four hundred twenty five degrees to heat the oil while you prep your chicken. You use some flour to roll your chicken in (I usually season the floor to whatever seasoning I like) then roll your chicken into an egg mixture of one or two eggs (depends on how much chicken you are frying) with one or two teaspoons of water added then mix the two together, then you roll the chicken back in the floor again. You should let the chicken sit for about ten minutes after rolling, this is suppose to help the flour dry onto the chicken a bit, then you place the chicken into the frying pan in the oven, let it cook fifteen minutes then turn the oven down to three hundred fifty, turn the chicken over and let it cook another forty five minutes. It is simply delicious and cooks to perfection every time. Joking aside though I have actually done exactly what you did...went from egg to batter...I spent years wondering why the flower or bread crumbs never stuck to the meat...I guess that initial dip into the floor is crucial to keep the egg stuck to the meat along with the breadcrumbs.

I am not a big pasta fan either unless I have to feed the masses, then it becomes crucial. The trick to making great pasta is placing the paste back into the pan after draining, back on the warm burner you took it off and stirring it until it loses it's shine or you no longer see steam coming off the pasta. You should do the same if you boil potato's, it will make firmer mash potato's or crisper American fries. When you are cooking it you don't let it cook completely soft either, it's suppose to be what they call al dente slightly under cooked, that way when you put your sauce over it the paste will continue to soften while absorbing the sauce making for a much tastier pasta.