from shirley's cottage

It was Saturday and Snowing
It was Saturday. I looked outside. It was snowing and it was beautiful. Snowmobiling weather. I called our friends who thought they might come up and ride if it snowed. "It’s snowing," I said. Get yourselves up here.
I got out all the paraphernalia that it takes to go riding: warm sox and mitts, snowmobile suit, helmet, face mask, scarf, etc. My outfit was a hoot.
My husband bought my white Cat jacket and my helmet. He never bought my clothes, but he loved that crazy helmet:.black plush with a bill, and a pom- pom on the top. "Nuff said. I wore it, and it provoked a lot of comments.
Clothes were ready. How about the machines. They were all ready except for mine. The handlebars were a little loose. No big deal. My Arctic Cat Panther was the oldest, but it started right up, and I felt comfortable with it.
I put the roaster in the oven so we would have a meal when we came home, wet, tired and hungry.
Off we went on a poker run. What fun. Everyone does not snowmobile, nor wants to. But I can’t imagine any adult who rides that has not been on a poker run. If not, you may want to try it.
You start at one place, (ok, a bar) take a card, go on to the next place and take a card, and so on until you get to the fifth place. Whoever has the winning poker hand wins.
You don’t have to drink to play, and I don’t consider this form of poker, gambling. If it is, oh, well. So is buying a lottery ticket.
On the way to the last card, the thing I had feared, happened. My loose handlebars came totally off the snowmobile.
My husband passed me up, and I held up my handlebars. He yelled through his facemask, "I can’t stop. I have a winning hand."
That was a Saturday in January, somewhere in the mid-70's. The year is not important. The memory is.
It is Saturday. I looked outside. It is snowing and it is beautiful. It is 2007. And the memory of all those other snowy Saturdays is beautiful, too.

The snowmobiles are gone. The heavy snows we used to have are gone. Some of the players are gone.
As I look out my window, and one lone snowmobile hums down the lake road, I remember that last poker run, when I was the winner.
What was in that roaster when we got home? Nothing fancy. Just the roast and vegetables that was our usual traditional Sunday dinner, made a day ahead...
Sunday Chuck Roast with Vegetables
you will need:
a four to five pound chuck roast (it has to be a chuck-for the marbling, for the flavor)
6 to 8 white potatoes, peel and quartered
one pound carrots peeled (real, not the baby packaged ones)
3 4 onions, quartered
3-4 celery stalks, cut into pieces
a firm medium cabbage, cut into wedges
Gravy Master
salt and pepper to taste
Brown chuck in a hot frying pan with a little oil
Brown until there is no raw in middle
Removed from pan and set aside
put vegetables in roaster with a little water
cover and bake at 350 until the meat is added.
put a cup or so of water into frying pan with a T of Gravy Master
Scrape drippings
Slice roast on diagonal
Put meat in roaster sort of under the vegetables
Pour drippings from frying pan over the vegetables and meat
Cover and bake at 275 for two hours or so until vegetables are done and meat is tender.
Guaranteed to be the best roast you ever made.
Enjoy!