National Something Day

 Did you know every single day of the year is National Something Day?  I mean really, how many things can you celebrate?  This day was catch up on sleep day, though Cooper seemed to be much better at that than me.  Twenty minutes after getting up, he's soundly back to sleep on the couch.

I should be so lucky.  Here we are three hours later when I got home from accounting, trying to get two printers to print.  No one had actually installed them on the computer.

Kitters seems to have the same capability.  She now spends every night snuggled up to this old pillow.

Lucky me, it was Visit Your Friends from Arizona day at my house.  They are on their way to an RV rally on the California coast before continuing on up north to visit three National Parks.  I can't tell you how many times I've met up with these guys ... and how much fun we've had over the years.  Many of my readers will know Patti and John Painter.  

Before they got here, I had a quick lunch of my favorite garlic bread.  Throw in the last red tomato I had, and it really hit the spot.

Patti and John have a big rig, so they parked out at our Elks Lodge RV Park.  I went there to hang out for for a couple of hours and to play with this little gal.  Meet Cocoa!  She's not so little at 61 pounds, and if she wiggles too hard, she can knock you over.  

We played for some time before she jumped up into Dad's chair, pushing him almost out of the seat.  There she fell fast asleep .... snoring!!  Sweetest little girl ever!

Patti keeps us all on our toes every day by posting National Day things we can celebrate.  Those of us who follow her, pick something off the list to celebrate every day.  I, of course, always go for the ice cream and pies.  Today however .... TODAY is National Fillet Mignon Day.  Let's go celebrate they said.  

Well okay, but this is Podunk California, and I don't thing we have a restaurant that actually serves that dish.  Way back in my younger days, we used to ski in Tahoe a lot.  There was a fabulous tiny little restaurant called The Greenhouse that had the best fillet I've ever eaten.  I think the last one I had was something like 35 years ago.

To my amazement, she found that the Branding Iron Restaurant, now a Mexican Restaurant, had fillet on the menu.  Not only that, but it was only $38.00.  I expected at least $50.  So off we went in separate cars.  I sat here while they got caught by a slow 135 car train!

Here's the menu.  They actually have TWO.  This is the American Dishes.  The six page BOOK menu has Mexican dishes I've never even heard of.  I may have to come here more often!!

Here it is .... fillet mignon, served on a scorching hot plate.  The potato ... perfect.  The veggies ... perfectly cooked and NOT overdone.  My fillet wasn't exactly perfect, but the other two were.  Mine was the end cut, a little stringy and coarse (that's cattlemen talk), but it was ALL flavor and cooked to rare perfection!!  I guarantee I'll be going back here and ordering it again.  

The service was amazing, and we were thanked for coming in about eight times over the course of the meal.  Though the house wasn't full, there were a lot of people there for a Wednesday night.  I'm glad they are doing well.

My friends asked about all the brands on the walls.  Way back in 1936, Ray Douglas built the Pine Cone Restaurant in town.  It was well known, to say the least.  In 1955 they built the Branding Iron Restaurant right next to the train station.  It's been THE most popular dining spot in this area ever since.  Of course it was WAY too expensive for our family, and we never had dinner there.

One of the things Ray did was ask all the local cattlemen to bring in their brands to make up part of the decor.   Some of them were branded right into the wood trim, but most were placed on blocks like this with their name and how to pronounce the brand.  

Does that name look familiar?  Yes, we were asked to contribute, and that's our ranch brand ... still hanging on the wall after 70 years.  You would be hard put to find a restaurant open for that long, let alone one that kept the same ambience.  I was thrilled to see the new owners kept the brands hanging on the walls.

Now full to the brim, I said goodbye to my friends and headed home.  I was thinking over the last few weeks, I've heard the jingle of an ice cream truck.  No truck, but I've heard the sounds.  I was shocked when I rounded the corner to my house to see a guy on one of those bicycle carts, slowly pedaling around the block.  I honked and waved .... I'm always about supporting the local guys ... and hey, he has ICE CREAM!

All the neighbors came out and we filled his pockets with dollars.  Gone are the 50 cent popsicles ... this ice cream sandwich was $4.00.  No matter, I bought TWO of them.  OH MY GOSH ... it was DELICIOUS!  This is a Blue Bunny sandwich that I would buy six times over.  The spare went in the freezer for tomorrow!  I know, I could probably buy a box for that, but you have to support initiative.

Mr. Coop was very happy to see me finally come in the house.  Yes, he got a little taste of ice cream too.  

Though I really didn't get much rest, it was an awesome day!!  I've got left over fillet and half a potato to eat, which will of course be followed up by that ice cream sandwich.  Diet??  What's THAT??

Time to see what I will be celebrating TODAY!