Good job! It sounds like your first attempt turned out a lot better than mine; it took me three or four tries to get what I think of as really *good* cassoulet.

Normally, I start the beans *way* before doing anything else. Like hours before - or even the night before. Only when the beans are as tender as I want them to be do I start the rest (because the beans can always sit on the stove top while you do the rest).

I suspect part of the dryness may have been due to the addition of turnips, which suck up a good deal of moisture themselves, and the way you treated the vegetables in general. The Julia Child version is almost entirely a beans-and-meat dish, and the only vegetables are the mirepoix of finely diced onion, celery and carrot, which are sauteed until soft and then cooked with the beans, so they practically dissolve and serve more as flavoring than vegetable.

Layering (with some stock & tomatoes ladeled on to each layer) also helps ensure that you get enough moisture. Also, the traditional recipe calls for sauteeing the bread crumbs in a fair bit of goose fat, so that when you put them on top of the casserole, they provide some slight seal against too much evaporation.

Details, details. Yours sounds *yummy*.