Garlic Herb Crusted Pork Roast

A couple months ago, some huge sirloin pork roasts went on sale around here for a really great price- but 7 pounds of meat is way too much for my little family, so I split the roast into two and tossed the other half into the freezer for a later date.  I hadn't really been finding anything that I wanted to do with the other half, though, until I ran across an intriguing recipe for a garlic herb crusted pork roast with orange zest.  Something about the recipe reminded me of this beef eye of round roast that we've made, which has turned out superbly tender, so I decided to combine the recipes and use the cooking method of the eye of round roast with the citrus herb crust from the pork roast recipe.  It was way easy to throw together- great for a day like today when I wanted something I could quickly toss in the oven and forget about it while I worked on other stuff- and the result tasted fantastic.

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves crushed garlic (should be around 1 Tbsp)
3/4 tsp ground black pepper
3/4 tsp ground dried sage
1/2 tsp dried crushed rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp fresh orange zest
6 cloves of garlic, sliced in half (optional- or you can use even more if you're a garlic lover, like me)
2-3lb boneless pork sirloin roast (Note:  Most of the roast recipes I've seen that use this high/low heat roasting method recommend that you let your roast sit out at room temperature for half an hour before cooking it- supposedly it helps it to cook more evenly- but I've never had the time to try it and my roasts have turned out fine, so make of that what you will- maybe they've already sat out for half an hour while I slice and stuff the garlic and rub it with herbs).  

Preheat oven to 500º.  Using a sharp knife, make deep slits all over the roast and stuff the garlic slivers inside the the slits.  In a small bowl, mix together the 3 cloves of crushed garlic, pepper, sage, rosemary, thyme, orange zest and olive oil, and rub it all over the roast, then place it onto the rack of a roasting pan.  Put the roast in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 475º.  Cook the roast for 7-8 minutes per pound (so, for a 2 lb roast, you would want 14-16 minutes).  Reduce the heat to 150º and cook for another 2-1/2 hours, or until meat thermometer inserted in roast reads 145º. (Originally the recipe called for completely turning the oven off and making sure the door stays shut tight for 2-1/2 hours.  My oven is badly insulated and loses heat way too quickly for that to actually work to cook the roast, but if you've got a better oven, you can try it that way!).  Let roast rest for 3 minutes before serving.