Victory Lap

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So as you could tell from my last blog post, I PASSED THE BAR EXAM!

Finding out that I passed was the proudest career moment of my life thus far. I worked really hard, twice, to achieve this goal. I had a huge smile of my face for several days after finding out the results and I still look at the screen shot I took of the screen telling me I passed because I can’t believe I really did it. I checked my scores with my boyfriend, drank a bottle of prosecco in celebration, and then went out for drinks and dinner to celebrate. It was probably one of the best nights of my life!

I also made a baller thank you breakfast for my boyfriend.

Behold:

This is my breakfast special: a layer of hash browns, with an egg scramble with onion, pepper, cheese, bacon and sausage topped off with avocado and more bacon on the side. I made a variation for myself that was the same but instead of scrambled I had mine sunny side up which is my new favorite way to eat eggs.

Last week my Dad was also in town on a stopover before going to the Grand Canyon for Memorial Day so we continued the celebration with several meals out at Circa in Manhattan Beach and Pecorino in Brentwood. When I was in high school if I made the honor roll my Father would take me out to dinner. Food is the best incentive ever for me so I obviously strove to make the honor roll every semester of high school. He declared our dinner at Pecorino to be the “final honor roll dinner”. It was nice to be around my old stomping grounds. We even popped into Tavern for a drink.

I was very anxious about bar exam results in the weeks leading up to May 17th. I started to work out more in order to distract myself. In addition to running I expanded my cross training. I start marathon training for Long Beach the week after the 4th of July. My working out hasn’t been focused since February and I definitely haven’t done a “long run” since then. Here is a rundown of what I’ve been up to.

Spinning

Thanks to hanging out with Gillian, I’ve been spinning more than usual. The week I got bar results we met up for a #SoulDate and went to Huckleberry after.

I could not love their brisket hash more.

Over out matching orders of brisket hash we decided to expand our spinning horizons and check out Fly Wheel. Fly Wheel is similar to Soul Cycle in that it’s a very expensive spinning class. However, the first Fly Wheel class is free! Obviously, we were in a Fly Wheel class about 10 days later.

Source

The Fly Wheel studio was very open and bright. The shoe rental is always free which I appreciate. When you arrive at the studio you sign in on computers and there is both cold and room temperature water available.

Gillian and I were attracted to Fly Wheel because of the torq board element. Basically, each bike has a little computer. You can control your “torq” or resistance and you also can see your RPM’s while you bike. The instructor tells you about where you should be in torq and RPM as you progress through the class. At the end of class you can go online and check your stats. There is also a leader board at the front of the room. At various times in class the instructor told us to sprint and put the leader board online.

As a competition junkie, I loved the torq board. It made me push way harder in class. Gillian loves competition as much as I do and for the class we went 1 and 2 on the torq board. Gillian got the number 1 spot. Unsurprising because she is a total badass and just ran Rock n Roll San Diego yesterday (her first) in under 4 hours.

Overall, I enjoyed Fly Wheel. I like that I can track my stats and I loved that the shoe rental is complimentary and how open and welcoming the studio is. The price of Fly Wheel and Soul Cycle are the same but Fly Wheel comes with more free “extras”. Let’s be honest, if I’m spending that much on a spinning class, it’s nice for them to throw in the shoe rental. I loved being able to track my distance and calories. On the whole, I think I like Soul Cycle more than Fly Wheel but I’ve also been doing it longer and have my favorite instructors etc.

Swimming

I’ve wanted to get back into swimming for a while and I finally bite the bullet and bought a swim suit online. I managed to find one at SwimOutlet.com for only $22. I decided to jump on it. Living in Manhattan Beach and South Bay there are tons of open pools with cheap lane swimming. Going into marathon training I want to have plenty of cross training options lined up for myself. Luckily it is pretty inexpensive to swim laps at the pools near my home (think $4). Way cheaper than Soul Cycle. Clearly, I need cost effective cross training options.

So far I’ve checked out the Hawthorne pool and one of the public pools in Manhattan Beach. I’ve loved both! Both are clean, there are always open lanes and they have kick boards readily available. I’m starting to look up beginner swim workouts. I’m not technically a beginner. I swan club at Northwestern when I was in middle school and I played water polo my freshman and sophomore years of high school. I wasn’t super talented, but I enjoyed being in the pool and spending time with my friends. I liked the occasional two a day work outs a lot less. I haven’t swum in a long time so I’m easing back in and looking up workouts online.

Today in fact, I went to the pool and completed an even 2000 yards. I did a warm up, alternating sets of kicking and pulls, a ladder, 200 yards of kicking and cool down. I realized I was going to be 200 yards shy of 2000 so I tacked on the kicking workout because I was so close to 2000.

Anyone out there swim? Any workouts you want to share?

Running

On the running front, I finally went to a running group in Manhattan Beach last week. I ran a mile to the store, 5 miles in my group and a mile home. Holy hills. My legs were DEAD the next day. I usually do not run in groups but I really dug this run in particular. I’ve been struggling to stay motivated, especially on the hills in my hood.

On Saturday I partook in a running and yoga class on the beach with the same running group. We did the run on soft sand which was more challenging than my usual run.

And finally, I am putting together my marathon training plan which will start in July! I’m taking this month to base build. Basically, I don’t want to feel dead after the first few weeks of training and I want to be able to hit the ground running next month. I’m piecing together a plan based on Hal Higdon and Nike. I want to do plenty of cross training and allow of rest days that will work with my schedule. What marathon training plans have you used? Any suggestions?

Russian River Brewery and other highlights from Santa Rosa

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Almost a month ago I made my second trip up to Sonoma Country. Better late to blogging about it than never blogging about it, right?

You might remember that I went to Sonoma for the first time last summer. I loved the time I spent there and have wanted to go back since. Last month I had my anniversary with my boyfriend and to celebrate we decided to take a trip with north to drink beer, taste wine and eat. These are our three of our favorite activities so we’re perfect for each other.

We drove up on Friday with the one goal of getting to Russian River Brewery before happy hour ended at 6:30. We were successful and made it in plenty of time!

I’ve wanted to go to Russian River for a very long time. I’ve been a Pliny lover for years and I wanted to try new beer as well. Going to this brewery was on the top of my agenda and let’s be honest, what guy is going to protest his girlfriend dragging him to a brewery? No guy I’d be interested in. The happy hour is an amazing deal: almost all the beers are only $3.75 a pint! That alone, on top of the amazing quality of the brews, was enough to get us in the door.

Round 1 was Pliny the Elder. I also tried Little White Lie before finishing off with another Pliny.

Side note: I got highlights! Do you like?

We ordered beer bites as well. I believe we had the Drew beer bites (with pepperoni and pepperoncini’s) and the Pliny beer bites (with white cheddar and jalapenos). Beer bites are essentially pizza cut into little bite sized pieces. Perfection!

Between the three rounds of beer and the beer bites I was stuffed! Love when I get to eat a dinner that is 90% gluten.

The next day we continued our trip with wine tasting. We mostly kept it local to Santa Rosa. We loved the Paradise Ridge winery. Check out how beautiful the property is…

Everyone we encountered there was so nice and lovely. They gave us a number of recommendations of places to go throughout the rest of the day which was very kind of them. We surprised ourselves and did something uncharacteristic, buying a bottle of sav blanc!

We went to a total of 5 wineries throughout the day. Our other favorite winery was Hook and Ladder. The pours were generous, flavorful (not too sweet, except for the port, obviously) and free of charge. The people taking care of us was really nice, chatty, and laid back. We ended up buying a bottle of the Pinot Noir at Hook and Ladder which I cannot wait to open.

I was pretty relaxed all vacation. How could you not be with all this beautiful scenery?

On the way back to LA we stopped off for mango drinks (which were thick, creamy and delicious. If I could have this for breakfast every day I would!)…

San Francisco

And Tartine, because I cannot enter the city without stopping for a morning bun and a hello to law school bestie, Chrissy.

Road trip fuel.

Overall, it was a very relaxing vacation. Next time I go I really want to hit up the Bear Republic brewery and Lagunitas! Any other suggestions?

This week better be boring & the LA Times Festival of Books

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Oh friends, so much has happened since the last time we spoke. Last week was one of the most chaotic weeks I’ve had in a long time. I had a pretty crummy week outside of the bombings on Monday is Boston. In addition, the whole Watertown standoff actually took place 2 blocks from one of my closest friend’s homes. I was totally on edge all day Friday and was so happy when the police were able to arrest the suspect alive. As happy as I was, the whole situation left me feeling bizarrely homesick and emotional on Saturday. I know it’s weird to say you want to be in a place where tragedy is unfolding. I have so many friends left in Boston. I love the city so much. I moved there by choice when I was 18 and I didn’t leave for lack of love.

Compared to what everyone in Boston went though, how I feel is almost nothing. I tried to spend time just snuggling this baby and tried to keep myself busy.

~~

In an effort to distract myself, I decided to hit up the LA Times Festival of Books on Sunday. I’ve always wanted to go but for the past three years I’ve had finals around this time and just never got it together to go. I definitely needed the distraction on Sunday to pull me out of my funk so I decided to trek to enemy territory (aka USC) to check out the festival.

So here’s the deal: the festival is free (after you pay $10 parking). There are booths with authors, book stores etc. all over the campus. Then there are various stages hosting free events with various authors (more on that later) and finally there are “conversations” on various topics throughout the festival. The conversations only cost $1 to attend! I was perusing the list of speakers and I saw a panel on Guns in America. The panel featured a UCLA Law professor whose class I never took but whose writing I’ve followed, Adam Winker, and Constitutional Law all star Erwin Chemerinsky. The panel was rounded out by Paul Barrett.

The conversation was very interesting. It only went for 1 hour but I wished it went for two. Professor Winkler started by talking about the history of gun regulation and gun culture. Then the discussion turned to the history and interpretation of the second amendment and the gun regulations that just failed to make it out on Congress. The whole discussion was very fascinating and enlightening. All of their books are going on my must read list.

After the panel I made my way to the food trucks. I quickly decided to grab a pork belly burrito from the White Rabbit Truck which serves Vietnamese food. I sat in the glorious sunshine and ate this delicious burrito.

After lunch I walked around in the sun, checked out the booths and bought some discount books.

I managed to snag some awesome books including the Tartine cookbook! I was actually at Tartine 1 week ago (separate post) and I am pumped to dig into the book.

After about an hour of aimless wandering I made my way to the cooking stage. Ludo Ludebvre was doing a cooking demonstration out of his new book Ludo Bites. Ludo is known for his tiny restaurants and pop up dining. I’ve blogged about it before, but I am a huge fan of the Ludo Truck. Ludo made smoked veal tartar.

Don’t know that I’ll be smoking veal tartar in my kitchen anytime soon but it was great to see Ludo work. He made his own mayonnaise which seemed really easy with the help of a food processor. He also said that he could change the recipe from veal to tuna, which I would consider doing. I’m just not too keen on cooking veal. He also did a Q and A after the demonstration. Ludo really likes to cook with butter. Can you blame him? I love French food and his new restaurant Trois Mec is now on my must try list.

Overall, I had a really nice time at the book festival. I wish I had planned more in advance and attended more of the conversations! I highly recommend checking out this event next year if you didn’t this year.

For Boston.

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It’s been a hard day.

Almost 9 years ago in the summer of 2004 I made my first trip to Boston. I remember vividly stepping off the T at Hynes Convention Center and into the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. It was love at first sight. A year later I moved to Boston to attend Simmons College.

As a student I would walk though the city and want to pinch myself. The city of Boston is a truly beautiful place: the cobblestone streets, green grass in the Public Garden, and even the dirty water in the Charles River. I learned all the streets, restaurants, and bars. I studied in the Boston Public Library and shopped in Copley Plaza. I attended Trinity Church and practiced yoga at Bikram Yoga Copley Square. I ate my graduation lunch at Stephanie’s just off Copley Square. Without a doubt, my favorite weekend in Boston was Patriots Day. Usually the weather is beautiful, the Red Sox are playing, people are out and about. Patriot’s day is a holiday and we would always be out and about watching the race. Hell, when I lived in Back Bay I lined Boylston Ave. a block from the explosions and watched the race. Patriot’s Day is the best day of the year in Boston.

A few years later I began running and fell in love with the marathon distance. For those who run, you know the Boston Marathon the way that I do. It’s a runner’s Holy Grail. You have to qualify in order to run. It’s the oldest marathon. It’s a marathon that Katherine Switzer integrated for women in the 1960′s. As a runner the Boston Marathon is a big deal but as a former Bostonian and runner, it holds a special place for me.

That’s why today has been a traumatic day. I wasn’t in Boston but this attack feels intensely personal.

We run marathons to test the human body and spirit. After months of training we take on the challenge of a 26.2 mile course. By the end, with the finish line in sight, we push ourselves with the knowledge that the people who love us and support us are at the finish line. Finishing a marathon is an emotional experience. So much goes into the race and the high at the end is unparalleled.

Seeing the terror at the finish line, blocks from my former home is horrifying and saddening. I cannot see or hear about the trauma occurring to the victims without getting emotional. I cannot hear stories from witnesses referencing parts of Boston I love without getting emotional. I know that if I were still living in Boston I would have been out watching.

However, I am not surprised at reports of runners continuing running from the finish line to Mass General to give blood. I am not surprised at many of my friends posting that they have beds open for those who have nowhere to go. Luckily, everyone I know is safe. Seeing the outpouring of love today has helped make a difficult day a little bit less difficult.

Marathons are about communities coming together to support runners and the idea that amazing feats are possible. Marathons are about celebrating achievement and hard work. They are overwhelmingly happy occasions. I don’t know what else to say. I love Boston. I love marathons. I hold the great hope that the city and the running community will rally around those injured and the families of those killed and the Boston Marathon will be great again.

“Triumph over adversity that’s what the marathon is all about. Nothing in life can’t triumph after that” -Kathrine Switzer

LA Marathon Day + an announcement

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Hey everyone!

For most people, Sunday was exciting because it was St. Patrick’s Day. I, on the other hand, woke up bright and early and excitedly drove to my old hood to spectate the LA Marathon!

This is my third year watching the LA Marathon. I watched it two years ago from inside Starbucks to avoid sitting in the torrential downpour that was happening. I had just registered for the Chicago Marathon and I remember thinking to myself, “what the hell have you gotten yourself into?!”

Last year I watched with my friend Chrissy. We both went to college in Boston so we have years of Boston Marathon spectating under our belts. The weather was great and we had a lot of fun.

This year, the weather was great for marathon running. I got there early, met up with a friend and camped out from 8:45 until noon with coffee and New York Bagel. This year I didn’t personally know any runners but I was excited to see the crowds and the elite runners, especially Deena Kastor. I have professed love for Deena before on the blog. This is mostly based on my 100 viewings of Spirit of the Marathon.

Speaking of lady runners, I love the gender challenge that the LA Marathon does. Basically, they start the women 18 mins before the men. That number is based on the average length of time it takes women to finish vs men to finish. The winner of the gender challenge gets an extra cash prize.

Obviously, I was stoked with the lead women went by before the dudes!

Look at her! It’s like she’s just chilling, running a neighborhood 5k. I should note that I was sitting just in front of mile 22. This is the point when people look and feel like death! Aleksandra Duliba zoomed by like it wasn’t anything. She ended up winning, the next women was at least a minute behind her. Then came Deena!

Deena looked like she was hurting a little bit, and she was in third place. Should also be noted, Deena looks like she weighs about the same as a feather. She basically could float to the end.

Moments before Deena came by, the men passed. Unlike the women, the men were in a pretty tight pack and they were totally battling it out which is so much fun to watch.

Neck and neck! I love watching the elites!

After the elites, the other runners started to pass by. I love cheering on marathons almost as much as I love running them. Usually I pick out something about someone’s shirt or their name if they have it on their bib and yell something about that to them. This year, I saw a guy in a Guinness shirt taking a walk break. I yelled at him that he was 4 miles away from a cold Guinness and he started to run again! Success!

Other interesting people to pass me by:

Robin!

This woman in an Irish outfit!

There were a bunch of runners dressed up for St. Patrick’s Day which was fun to watch. I can’t say that I’d ever run a full or a half marathon in a costume, but as a spectator it’s fun to see.

Obviously, there was a ton of media coverage in LA about the marathon. However the best thing I read all week was this article in the LA Times about a judge who helps runners in the Midnight Mission on skid row in downtown LA train for the marathon. I was very inspired by this article. Running can be a transformative experience and this article is definitely worth a read. Thanks Gillian for bringing it to my attention.

***

Yesterday was a great day. Every time I watch the marathon I remember how I felt when I finished my first marathon. I love the feeling I had when I crossed the finish line. I felt like I was soaring. The feeling was on par with finishing the bar exam, finishing my first half marathon, setting a PR or graduating from law school.

This past year has been so exciting, but at the same time frustrating. I’ve prioritized the bar exam over running. I wanted to run the LA Marathon but when I found out I didn’t pass the bar, that plan was put on hold. Working, studying and training for a full would have been overwhelming. I was so glad I ran the Pasadena Rock n Roll Half. It gave me the emotional boost I needed to finish my studying strong but I still wished I was able to run LA.

Because my career has been up in the air I had been hesitant to set any solid race plans. What if I get a job and don’t have time to train? What if I don’t pass the bar and decide to retake in July? It’s easy to put off any kind of plan until you have these big questions worked out. At the same time, this uncertainly about career has been going on for almost a year. I could be unemployed for a while. I feel like I’ve been putting things I want on hold. Sometimes it’s necessary. For me, training for a marathon and studying for the bar would have been too much. However, I don’t want to put off doing things that make me feel good about myself and make me feel fulfilled until some uncertain date in the future.

I have several running goals I want to achieve but I haven’t really committed to any of them. Until now.

I’ve been contemplating this move for a while, and I am so excited to make what will hopefully be a glorious return to marathon running on October 13th in Long Beach!

I choose the Long Beach marathon for several reasons. First, I researched the race and almost everything I read was positive. The course is mostly flat, there were a good number of water stations and the race seems to be well executed. Obviously, Long Beach will be way different than Chicago, which is a major city marathon. Nothing will compare to running in Chicago (crowds, supporters, it being my hometown) but I’m excited for a different experience. Now that I live in South Bay, the race is pretty close to where I live. Hopefully I’ll have a bunch of friends watching and cheering me on. Also, for a marathon the entry fee was not outrageous as far as marathon fees go.

The final perk that helped me make up my mind was the fact that there is a half marathon being run on the same course as the full. Thus, if there is a disaster of some kind and I cannot train for the full I still have the option to run the half. I don’t expect that I will need to do this. I take signing up for a full marathon seriously and want to train for the distance. I’ve never really had an injury that has precluded my running a full. However, if I get a job that demands me to work 70 hours a week in August and my training is derailed I still can opt into the half. If there’s a will, there’s a way and if something comes up that derails my training, I’ll deal with it when it comes up.

Overall, I am really pumped to take on this new challenge. I cannot wait to be able to say I run marathons (plural!) I didn’t do any speed work when I trained for Chicago and approached the race with a casual run/walk method. This time, I want to train a bit more intensely and set a real time goal. Because I ran Chicago in 5:20 I should be able to PR in Long Beach if I put in the work. Thank you, countless minutes spent noodling with race pace calculators! Plus, I get to log tons of miles along the ocean front which is one of my favorite things to do right now.

Oh, and I can’t wait for my legs to look/feel this bad ass again.

Congrats to everyone who finished the LA Marathon yesterday! You guys are amazing!

The blog is back!

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Hey guys!

I know I said my return to blogging would happen weeks ago. What can I say? I’ve enjoyed doing far less the past few weeks. The weekend after the bar exam I went to San Diego and had a ton of fun. I had a ton of photos from bar week, my trip and random things after. However, last Friday my phone finally bit the dust. I’d had my android for 2 and a half years so I wasn’t that surprised by it. I went in to AT&T and upgraded to an iphone. Unfortunately, my photos didn’t transfer. Whoops.

However, the past week has been blog related action packed.

To the highlights!

Last weekend my law school bestie Chrissy was in town. It was great to get the whole law school gang together again. We’ve all scattered a little bit and been busy so it was awesome to see them every day last weekend. Miss these guys.

On Friday we ended up at Tom Bergin’s Irish Pub in LA for drinks. I love Tom Bergin’s. The vibe is always low-key and they have a great beer list. Anywhere with Stone IPA on draft is good in my book. Also, I ordered fish and chips. I have been craving fish and chips. It was like St. Patrick’s Day came early.

No photo of the food, bad blogger, but I did get this one of Chrissy and I by the Tom Bergin’s fire:

photo (6)

Saturday we went to Ethiopian food in little Ethiopia on Fairfax. I love Ethiopian food because it’s all meat and bread. Sorry, again I was an off duty blogger. That said, Rosalind’s in my favorite restaurant on Fairfax. The people there are unbelievably nice.

Sunday we all went on a hike at Tree People which is just north of Beverly Hills. I haven’t been on this trail before and it was a good one! The trail is well maintained, with lots of parking and decent views. Overall, it’s much less of a scene than Runyon which is kinda nice.

The gang. Please note my “Run Like El” shirt. So stoked to watch the LA Marathon today!

In other news, I need new running shoes:

I don’t think that I should be able to do that with my shoes.

I took the week of the bar and the week after more or less off from running but I’m getting back into the miles, although I do need to order new shoes!

I ran a total of 15 miles this week. I’m wearing replacement shoes until the new ones arrive because I do not want to risk an injury. I’m also cross training. I went to Soul Cycle in Santa Monica Friday.

For the record: Laura Crago is a beast and you need to take her class. Instead of only doing weights, she had us grab our towels and use those. At first I thought it would be easy but damn was I wrong. My shoulders may never be the same! She also encouraged us to ride with our hair down. It reminded me of doing Bikram with my hair down while in college. Basically, my hair turned into a brunette lion’s mane. It was awesome. I love Soul Cycle. I wish I had the budget to go more frequently!

The past week has been scattered with other random Irish things. I enjoy St. Patrick’s Day but let’s be honest, once you’ve celebrated in Boston you can’t celebrate in LA. It just isn’t the same level. Nothing compares to drinking openly at the Southie Parade. Besides dining at Tom Bergin’s Irish Pub last weekend, I indulged in two Irish theme treats.

First, the seasonal special cupcake from Susie Cakes: Guinness Chocolate Stout cupcake with Bailey’s Butter cream. It’s as good as it sounds, I promise.

Working at Susie Cakes perks! Love this cupcake. Sadly, it ended its run today but keep your eyes peeled next March for it!

In other treat news, after reading the Tom Bergin’s menu I had a genius idea to make Guinness Floats. Obviously, talking my boyfriend into making them with me took approximately 5 seconds.

All you need to do is scoop the ice cream and pour the Guinness on top. I love beer. I love ice cream. However, usually I would not combine to two but with Guinness I will make an exception. The creaminess from the ice cream is delicious with the Guinness. As you might guess, it was delicious. Perfect dessert anytime of the year!

Finally, I started an Instagram account. For more photos of alcohol and food follow @kathswanson on Instagram.

Hope everyone has a great St. Patrick’s Day!

Regular blogging to resume Monday 3/4, I promise guys!

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I believe I will pass the bar (two weeks until the bar exam WHAT?!).

I believe I miss blogging.

I believe I want this month to be over.

I believe I am about to lose my mind.

I believe I have three half completed blog posts I have not had time to finish but I promise they will be up soon because one of them is a love letter to a biscuit (be my valentine bacon cheddar biscuits? Please?) and I am running a half marathon this weekend and I have so many running thoughts I want to share.

I believe that I love my job. A 4 year old asked me to be his valentine yesterday and it melted my cold, non-child loving heart. My heart grew approximately 3 sizes yesterday.

I believe that this time, unlike last time, I am not losing weight due to stress. Not a bad thing. Stress weight loss isn’t my jam. Pixy Stix are my jam right now.

OK. Back to the grind. I just wanted to pop in and say that I have not forgotten that I write a blog sometimes and I cannot wait to be able to get into regular posing again. The past few weeks have been nutty between working and studying and I am looking forward to moving forward and leaving studying behind.

Until then, enjoy this picture of Izzy studying alongside me!

Holy Cannoli!

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I know the title of this post is terrible but I just could not help myself.

The past week has been spent getting into the groove of my new work, study, social life schedule. So far… so good. Luckily I came very close to passing the bar last time so this time I’m targeting the areas where I’m weak and doing a general overview. I feel much more at ease than I did last time because a lot of the information is still relatively fresh in my mind.

Also, I got my hair cut. You like?

I’ve also been pretty good at getting back into my workouts after a slight hiatus over Christmas. I scored a free Soul Cycle class yesterday with David. He kicked my ass all over the studio but I felt great (and sore) afterwards. It’s amazing what a good workout can do you my attitude. I’ve also been doing a good job of eating well, not dining out too much and not over indulging at work (which is a CHALLENGE at Susie Cakes, believe me).

However, last week I got a special treat. My friend Kelly, whom I often dine with at establishments like Plan Check, Geisha House, Tart, Ugo or Umami, invited me over to try her family’s homemade cannoli.

Kelly is Sicilian and her family makes ravioli and cannoli from scratch every Christmas. She brought extra shells and filling back to LA. It was a major treat for me. I love cannoli but rarely order when out. Living in Boston and eating cannoli at Modern Pastry, Mike’s and other shops in the North End spoiled me in college. The cannoli Kelly served me was on par with the best cannoli’s I had while living in Boston.

Her family hand makes the shells, with a deep fryer and everything. She listed the ingredients that are in the shell but I forgot most of them, except wine. Let’s face it: I never forget anything that has wine involved. The shells were crispy and delicious.

She filled the shells with the most delicious filling. The filling has heavy cream, ricotta, orange zest, vanilla, and chocolate chips. There are more ingredients, but they’re escaping me right now. The filling is whipped for a long time and came together soft, rich and delectable. I love a dessert that is made with real ingredients like heavy cream, I love them even more when you can TELL there are delicious real ingredients.

Kelly stuffed the shells with the filling and then dipped the ends in crushed walnuts.

This was so tasty. Despite the fact that it was a week after Christmas all the components tasted fresh. The filling was creamy, thick and rich but not over powering. The shells were still crispy and crunchy. Honestly, this cannolli was at least as good as the ones in Boston’s North End, if not better!

Thanks Kelly for such a special treat!