Pork Roast with Winter Vegetables

Saturday was an ideal day for a big roast beast, for many reasons. Holt wanted to try out the new probe thermometer his Dad gave him for his birthday; Philip was coming to dinner, so we wanted to serve something American and generous; and it was a cold, blustery day. Of course, pig is the typical beast to roast here in Porkopolis, and happily enough, pork sirloin was on sale at IGA. Holt seasoned it Italian style, by stuffing garlic slices and rosemary leaves (garnered by Barbara before the plants went into hibernation) into slits poked into the meat. Then he strewed the vegetables - onions, turnips, carrots, later some parsnips - around the roasting pan and shoved it all into the oven at the People's Temperature.
We had some drinks and snacks when Philip arrived, and then went out into the cold for the Clifton Carriage Rides: two patient Percherons towed a carriage of willfully merry Cliftonites around a couple of blocks, accompanied by jingly bells and Christmas carols (if anyone knew or could read the words). Of course, when we got back, the alarm on the probe thermometer had already gone off, so Holt didn't get to hear it. But the roast was juicy, the vegetables roasted to a turn, and the dessert, of Graeter's coconut chip with the last of Michael's gingered pears, was a sweet, though cold, finish.