Cider-Glazed Lamb Chops and Buttery Cauliflower Puree

When Jamie started eating these lamb chops, he immediately demanded, "Are you going to put this on the blog? Will this be on the blog?" Needless to say, he loved them. They were so tender and tangy and just delicious. The reduced ginger-garlic-cider-soy-vinegar glaze is complex and sweet and salty and has a great zip from the vinegar. The cauliflower puree is a little sinful, but wow is it good. It's light and fluffy and rich.

Lamb Chops (from this recipe) it's supposed to serve 4 people, but Jamie and I ate it all
Ingredients:

1 cup apple cider

2 tablespoons minced peeled ginger

2 tablespoons minced garlic

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons rice vinegar (not seasoned)

1 tablespoon honey

8 rib lamb chops (3/4 inch thick), cut from 1 rack

1 scallion, finely chopped

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, boil cider, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, and honey until reduced to about 1/4 cup, 10 to 12 minutes, and cool. Preheat broiler.

Cider-Braised Pork Shoulder with Caramelized Onions

I wanted to use my braiser and saw this recipe on epicurious and thought it sounded perfect for fall! Plus, our friend Rob was coming over and he loves pork, so I wanted to make something pork-related. Since it takes about 3 hours to cook, I had to make it the day before so we could eat at the reasonable hour, which also helped for skimming the fat. It was really juicy and tasty, and I actually liked it even better the next day! I took the leftover pork and sauce and added a little extra cider and heated it up and shredded it. Yum! It was so rich and falltastic. It also makes me want to cook up an apple cider-based BBQ sauce.

Ingredients:
3-4 lb bone-in pork shoulder (I could only find boneless)
1 cup apple cider
5 yellow onions, halved lengthwise and sliced into 1/4" slices
4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp chipotle power (I added this because I think cider and chipotle go really well together)