Maple-orange-garlic pork loin, four days early

Though the weather is certainly doing its very best to be Yule-appropriate, and schedules are tricky things.

1. Get your butcher to bone a pork loin for you; you want the non-rib end, that usually gets turned into chops. Unless you are really good at this specific evolution, you want them to do the boning, not do it yourself.
2. Put it on a broiling pan, fat side up; make sure there's at least two centimetres or so of water in the bottom of the pan.
3. Score the fat, deeply; this is to keep the interesting stuff from running off.
4. Sprinkle with crushed tarragon, cinnamon, and thyme; there is four times the tarragon as thyme, and twice the cinnamon as tarragon.
5. Drizzle with maple syrup; about tablespoon, or a bit more. (15 to 20 mL.)
   
6. Pulp eight or nine cloves of garlic over the loin, as evenly as your garlic press will permit you.
7. Cover the loin with the pierced segments of two oranges, peeled and de-pulped. (Next time, I will probably chop them.)
   
8. Drizzle with maple syrup again, a teaspoon or two. (5 to 10 mL.)
9. Heave into an oven on bake at 425 F for two hours.
10. While it is cooking, make some maple-garlic-orange sauce to go with it once it is done.
    

Comes out of the oven looking like this.

And went on the table like so. That's the sauce in the gravy boat, and next time I take pictures by candle light I will remember to adjust the exposure. Side dishes were bacon and mushrooms, and, not yet visible on the plate, green beans.
Fairly simple for Yule, even counting the somewhat deflated gluten-free sponge cake, but eaten with good cheer in excellent company.

It might even be said that the excellent company expressed kind words about the cooking, to my considerable delight.[1]

[1] What with never having made this specific dish before, and all.