Inside My Mid-life Crisis

I took a stab at a classic French dish last week; Duck Confit. If you are a fan of any Food Network competition shows you hear references to the use and delightful benefits of duck confit and duck fat regularly. I wanted to see first hand what all the fuss was about. I searched the Internet to choose a recipe and settled on a "Simply Recipes" Easy Duck Confit.

Easy NOT. Standard preparation takes several days even this one would have taken a day or 2 and I was just not that patient.

The premise of duck confit is to take the leg and thigh sections of the duck, marinate for a day or 2 then slow roast in its own delicious fatty drippings creating succulent, rich, decadent duck morsels and precious duck fat. (You should now be either queasy or salivating).
I prepped my duck sections with garlic, fresh thyme, salt, pepper and a bay leaf and let it marinate for about 4 hours. I then slow roasted with the remaining duck sections in another roaster.
So even tho I gave up on the actual correct methods for confit, I still wound up with a rich and tasty roasted duck and about a half cup of precious duck fat (strained) to be reserved for use sparingly in sauted veggies or the like.

Suffice it to say I surely would have been kicked off "Chopped" for the hatchet job I did butchering my duck.