Braised Pork, Cabbage, and Roasted Potatoes

For my mom's birthday, I made her a birthday feast of Braised Pork with Apples and Cider Sauce, Braised Red Cabbage, and Roasted Potatoes. And Pink Cake for dessert. The pork and cabbage recipes are from "Savoring the Seasons" by Beth Dooley and Lucia Watson.

Braised Pork:
Pork Roast (we used two pieces of pork roast that were about 5lbs total)
4 tbsp butter
3 scallions, chopped
5 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup brandy
3 cups apple cider
3 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp dried thyme
bay leaf
8 peppercorns

preheat oven to 350F.
heat the butter in a large, deep pan over medium high heat. sear the
pork roast on all sides. remove the meat from the pan and add the
scallions, apples, carrots, and onion and sauté. when the veggies are
soft, add the brandy and boil for 1 minute. add the cider, stock,
thyme, bay leaf and peppercorns. place pork roast in a roasting pan
and pour veggies/liquid over the pork. roast in oven for 2 1/4-2 3/4
hours, until meat reaches 160F on a meat thermometer. we served the
veggie/stock/cider mixture on the side and poured over the pork. the
recipe says you can also reduce it and make more of a gravy or puree
the veggies into the stock to make a thicker sauce.

Braised Red Cabbage:
3 strips bacon or 2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 medium head red cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 tart apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 cup apple cider1/3 cup sugar
salt and pepper to taste

in a large, deep skillet, fry the bacon (or if using oil or butter, heat over medium heat). leave the drippings in the pan and drain the
bacon on paper towels. crumble the bacon and set aside for garnish.
sauté the onion until soft and brown. toss the shredded cabbage with the vinegar, then add this, along with the remaining ingredients (except the salt and pepper), to the pot and simmer, uncovered, until the cabbage is bright and tender (it should not get soggy), about 20 minutes. season with salt and pepper to taste.

Roasted Potatoes:
simple and delicious. this is my favorite way to cook potatoes.dice potatoes, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. add whole cloves of garlic, still in the paper.

roast at 400F for 45 min-1 hour, depending on how crispy you like
them. in my case, very crispy.