Rosie Makes Cassoulet.

Yesterday while I was out running errands, I decided to stop by the beach just to take a look-see. I found it. It's still there. And some of you were thinking I really didn't live at the beach. After leaving the beach, I stopped by the Outer Banks Brewing Station to check out their wind turbine.

It is January 7 and the temperature is 75 degrees.

This is the view down the canal about 11:45.

Looks like we're in for a bit of weather.

And ten minutes later, here it is. I always like a rainy day. And I like cooking on a rainy day. Just very relaxing for me and I'm taking it sort of easy after the month of Christmas. I've had a recipe my friend Martie sent me a while back I've been meaning to try for some time - Thomas Keller's Slow-Cooker Cassoulet. And today's the perfect day for this. "Nothing like a hearty cassoulet in 75 degree weather," you're thinking. But weather changes down here rather quickly. As a matter of fact, today it's raining again, the wind is still blowing hard, and the temperature is in the 40's and that leftover cassoulet I just had for lunch was some good eatin's.

Here are my ingredients: Boston Butt Canola oil Panko bread crumbs Thick cut bacon Yellow Onions White wine (not shown) Tomato paste 1 large can peeled Italian Plum tomatoes Chicken broth Great Northern Beans Chorizo sausage 1 garlic head parsley (not shown) salt and pepper Keller calls for doing all the sauteing in the slow-cooker, but I preferred to do it on the stove top in pans that I'm familiar with and make a huge grease spill all over the place so that I had to clean my entire cooktop, shelf, and hood afterwards, which is no small undertaking.

First I cooked the Panko in Canola oil until it was toasted and golden.

After about 6 minutes, I transferred the toasted Panko to a baking sheet and seasoned with salt and pepper.

I pulled out a chunk of bacon which turned out to be 9 ounces.

Scissored the bacon into small pieces and fried it up until it was nice and crisp.

I drained the bacon on paper towels and I saved the bacon "joos."

Here's my Boston Butt roast. Now, a butt roast does not come from the butt of the pig. It's from the shoulder. The name "Boston Butt" comes from pre-revolutionary and Revolutionary War New England when some less valued pork cuts (not the "high on the hog" cuts) were packed into barrels or casks also known as "butts" for storage and shipment. The way the pig shoulder was cut in the Boston area became known as "Boston Butt." The name stuck and Boston Butt is called that almost everywhere in the United States, ... except Boston.

This is so typical of any cut of meat I get. Turn it over and there's about an inch of hidden fat.

I trimmed as much fat off as I could then chopped the meat into large chunks.

Meat went into the bacon grease in separate batches. Don't crowd the meat or it will sweat and steam instead of sauteing and searing.

After you put a few pieces in the pan, don't mess with the meat. Give it at least 30 seconds before you start poking, else the meat will stick. Brown on all sides for about 8 minutes or so and transfer to a platter. Repeat with the remaining meat.

Just out of curiosity, I weighed the fat. 1 pound 5.6 ounces

I coarse-chopped 3 yellow onions and added them to the bacon grease along with a teaspoon of Kosher salt. I sauteed the onions until golden brown, about 8 minutes, then added in 2-3 cups of Chardonnay and simmered until the wine was reduced by half.

While the onions and wine were simmering, I sliced a head of garlic in half.

And added the browned pork, the garlic, and chorizo slices (I only used 4 pieces of chorizo sausage, sliced, not the 1 1/2 pounds called for in the recipe.) to my crock pot. Now, Keller's recipe calls for discarding the garlic after cooking. No way. No how. I love roasted garlic.

I drained a large can of Italian plum tomatoes and coarse-chopped them.

And added that to the onion and wine mixture after the wine had reduced. This smells heavenly.

Next, about 2 cups chicken broth went in.

And I poured that into my crock pot and stirred it all to mix well. Covered the pot and turned it on high for about 5-6 hours.

Fresh parsley from my garden was picked, rinsed, and dried.

I baked two baguettes from Schwann's.

At top is my toasted panko. To the right is my chopped parsley. At the bottom is my bacon. And at the left is a container of cooked Northern Beans. Earlier today, I rinsed the beans, put them in salted water, brought the water to a boil, covered the beans, turned the heat off, and let set for about an hour. Then repeated twice. And I ended up with perfectly cooked beans. I didn't want to do them in the crock pot for 7 hours like the recipe called for because I worried about getting mushy beans.

I added in my beans right at the very end just so they'd get heated through.

Previously, I had sliced the baguettes, brushed with olive oil, and placed under the broiler for a few minutes. For serving, I used the baguette slices, spooned some of the cassoulet on the plate, with plenty of juice to be sopped up by the bread, and topped with the toasted Panko, the bacon, and the parsley. The recipe said to fold in the Panko, but I didn't want to. I wanted to add it on each serving so I could see it, feel it, and taste it.

And this was DELICIOUS. Period.