What's on your (PHOTO) Friday Menu?

Thanks!

So happy the surgery was approved.

Thank you!

Hope you feel better today and that a day of rest gets you back on your feet. I would blame the egg bites and avoid them for years also; I read once that there's no 24-hour flu, it's all variations of food poisoning which made my food safety paranoia even higher, lol.

I am so glad it's Friday; I don't have a ton planned other than cleaning my house tomorrow, I have some home projects I want to get done between christmas and NY that will go better if I start from a clean house! Sunday I have a mat class that my pilates studio is hosting at the Athleta in the mall a bit further south. I hate mat classes but you get a $50 gift card for Athleta and private shopping before the mall opens. Nothing is $50 there so I'm sure the free class will end up costing me.

QOTD - hardwood except for the bathrooms and bedrooms. I would love to rip the carpet out of the bedrooms but it's good quality, the house is not even 3 years old so I can't justify doing it (yet).

I think today is the last busy-busy day of the year and I'm going to give myself permission to just chill once I log off!

General question, I picked up a trio of small panettone -- I've never had it before, I was thinking to slice it and toast it? Is it like pound cake?

Menu today is

coffee plus half and half X 3

cheesy eggs

eggnog yogurt

not sure about dinner

will be having a glass of wine this evening for sure

My pictures today are from my trip to the Biltmore last week during my work trip. Very cool property and building. I did the roof tour too so going out on the roof was fun! Interesting fact - Vanderbilt wanted everything to fit perfectly so he had all the facade work done in place; so for the gargoyles the full blocks of stone were installed and then the craftsmen worked on them in place. All the gargoyles were supposed to be the same but someone made a mistake and they couldn't take it down and start over.....and that's why one of these gargoyles has a butt and not a tail! It was built with electricity, plumbing and the best fireproofing available at the time; has 95 bedrooms and 43 bathrooms, a private gym, indoor pool and a library that might be my idea of heaven. His brother had built The Breakers and it had burned down so he was very nervous about fire and that's why it had all the safety features.

He built a platform where the house would be and then sent people to buy all the property in sight and was succesful in that except for Mt. Pisgah. He even paid some villages a premium to move, plus bought them a new village area (out of sight) and moved the whole village there! That's like some medieval crap, lol.

Biltmore with only greens highlighted -- the copper at the top looks pretty but also interacts with the rain and sun and creates a light acid that cleans the slate roof. In the center building, that gargoyle on the top right corner is the one with but butt not tail.

Gargoyle butt

Gargoyle tail

Viewsfrom the back of the house

Have a great weekend!

Great pics! I've never had panettone...

1) what's a mat class?
2) love the gargoyle pic.
3) as the resident Italian I think I can opine on the panettone question.

a) it depends what kind of panettone (they have different flavors) I hope you didn't get the fruit candy one because it's the worst.

b)it is eaten on Xmas eve

c) we usually don't toast them

d) You just slice it and eat it after xmas eve dinner. Towards the end of the evening when everybody is drunk on wine you can dunk it in dessert wine.

I knew you would give me guidance! They are from Whole Foods but made in Italy. I don't think I got a fruity one - traditional, lemoncello, and double chocolate

One year I knew I wouldn't eat the panettone someone gave it fast enough. I cut it in thick slices, dried them in the over to make "biscotti" and then covered with dark chocolate and sprinkled nuts and toasted coconut on that. It was great, and I could take time to eat it.

Wow, never had it that way.
I love biscotti. Nothing like biscotti on Xmas morning dunked in your cappuccino.

Because of the panettone texture, the "dried cake" was very crumbly, softer texture than biscotti. But that was still great. Once I covered them in chocolate (some I didn't, or I didn't used the mix nut toppings), the I could dunk them in my coffee.