You are sure are making the most of those local provisions, @GretchenS. 
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Recipe below, @retrospek . As for no egg noodles on the outer Cape, perhaps distribution issues? A couple of months ago, you couldn’t find spaghetti or lasagna in the local Market Basket or Wegmans, but Hannaford was well stocked. And cat food in cans was virtually non-existent in supermarkets, and Petco was hurting as well. (Still is depending on the day you go in and when they can have what seems to be fewer employees on the floor stocking the shelves).
Note…the recipe was originally a mostly oven recipe, but I’ve changed it to half oven/half stovetop for reasons noted below. You could easily do this exclusively on the stovetop, just requires a bit more watching to avoid scorching. Well, at least with my crappy electric coil stovetop, you do. 
(Thank goodness for my 30yo flame tamer!)
Pork, Sweet Potato & Apple Cider Stew
Serving Size: 6
3 Tbsp canola or vegetable oil – divided (more as needed)
1/3-1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp dried thyme, more to taste
1/2 tsp dried sage, more to taste
2-3 lbs. boneless pork butt – trimmed and cut into large 1-1/2 to 2" chunks
4 large carrots – peeled and cut into 2" chunks
2 medium sweet potatoes – peeled and cut into 2" chunks
2 cups apple cider
1 cup chicken or pork stock
1-2 Tbsp cognac
1-2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, more if you want more tang
1-2 bay leaves
minced parsley
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large Ziploc bag, combine flour, salt, pepper, thyme and sage. Add cubes of pork. Seal shut and shake well to coat the pieces of pork.
In a Dutch oven suitable for both stovetop and oven, heat sone of the canola or olive oil over medium high heat until shimmering. Add pork shoulder cubes in small batches, browning well on all sides. Remove browned pork to a bowl; add more oil to the Dutch oven and brown remaining pork. Remove all pork from Dutch oven.
Pour apple cider, chicken stock, cognac, and apple cider vinegar into Dutch oven and bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to loosen the fond on the bottom of the pan and blend it into the liquid. Turn off stove heat.
Return pork to the liquid, tuck bay leaf in under the meat, sprinkle half of any remaining flour mixture over top, and cover. Bake in the oven for 1 hour or so.
Remove from oven, and tuck in the large chunks of carrots and sweet potatoes, ensuring that the liquid mostly covers the meat and vegetables. Sprinkle the remaining flour mixture over top and bake for another hour, checking occasionally to stir and ensure vegetables are cooking and liquid is thickening. (If liquid remains too thin, remove the lid and stir occasionally. You can also add a flour slurry to thicken the liquid to a gravy at the end.)
Serve in individual bowls over egg noodles, sprinkled with minced parsley.
NOTE: you can also cook this exclusively on the stovetop, as the liquid has a tendency NOT to thicken in the oven, whereas a simmer on the stovetop with the lid ajar helps to release the steam and thicken the gravy.
P.S. Sweet potatoes get VERY soft, so the large chunks are necessary so they don’t melt into nothingness when you scoop everything out of the pot.
P.P.S. This is best with unpasteurized apple cider (only found in the autumn when cider comes out). What is sold in supermarkets is pasteurized and the flavor can be deadened with that process. But it still works for this recipe.
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Holy hell, Greg! I would have been right alongside the adorable hungry cat! That looks AMAZING! You get a gold star 
on your forehead for that meal.
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OK, you’re my new BFF for growing your own spring peas. I love them! My sister, on the other hand, would ignore you completely, as she used to try to hide them under her mashed potatoes to avoid eating them when we were kids. 
She doesn’t know what she’s missing!
Btw, you were 100% correct that the new dishes would elevate the great meals you all turn out. The photos pop.
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Both look … well, I’m drooling over that picture. While I’m not a kraut fan, I can imagine the tang worked nicely with the pork.
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Lol - yes to baby peas! We pick them very young, so they pop in your mouth when you eat them. I think the secret is not to cook them much. These here I didn’t cook at all - thawed on the counter while I made dinner, then put into the bottom of a strainer before draining the orzo over them. That was enough to warm them up. Sweet and tender as could be.
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@LindaWhit Thank you!
@Rooster Thank you, and yeah, my old stalwart Corelles would have been no match for that bad boy!
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Samin Nosrat’s pasta alla vongole, which I’d made once before, this time with my sister’s fresh pasta. I used almost the full amount of clams (littlenecks and cherrystones - 3 lbs. instead of 4) even though it was just for the two of us. So good! Should have bought some bread too soak up the juices, but we downed them anyway, along with some cheapo, TJ’s French rosé bubbly.
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I’ve wanted to try Mangalitsa pork for ages. Is it different than other heritage pork? Tamworth and Berkshire come to mind for comparison.
Really nice looking dinner there.
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Mangalitsa pork is much darker meat than other pork I know, including Berkshire. I know I’ve had Tamworth in Britain but I’ve never cooked with it. To me Mangalitsa vs other pork is chicken thigh vs breast. But how much of its deliciousness is being raised on pasture and lovingly tended is up for grabs. All I can tell you is that after 18 months of eating only local pastured meats I’m not interested in any other kind. Lucky me that I have this access. It does come with living in the Maine woods, with little to no cell coverage and in the winter, access only to the type of produce that is hearty enough to make it here to the extreme* end of the supply chain. 
*Apply other descriptors as desired.
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Merci Beaucoup!!
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Good comparision. I can’t get Mangalitsa reliably but always snap it up if I do see it. One of the local farm shops usually has live ones in the adjacent field and I always feel a bit guilty buying the pork. But it so damn tasty - een better than the usual Landrace X that usually forms most free range or organic in these parts.
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Thanks for the comparison. I have decent access to pastured meats, but it’s the usual varieties (Tamworth, Berkshire) which are very good, but the Mangalitsa has intrigued me for a while, especially since I render lard and make sausages. We’re gradually transitioning to a small homestead, so I’m also going to see if it’s feasible to raise some animals in addition to growing crops. At the very least it will be interesting.
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!!!
Right? I estimated six servings from the nearly full 8-qt. instant pot. I only put a half cup of cooked gnocchi in my portion(s). The soup was definitely brothy! I also basically omitted the cheese entirely and just used some hard aged gouda ends for flavor.
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With ham 
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Haha. Yeah, I’m weak for protein and ham goes so well.
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