My First Cannoli

June 17, 2014 by lorz46 3 Comments

I want to start off by saying that I can’t believe I’ve never had a cannoli before now. I first learned about the cannoli when I was watching an episode of Cake Boss where they had to make hundreds of cannolis for the annual 25 cents Throwback Cannoli Day. This episode aired in July of 2009. It is now June of 2014. Like I said, I’m not sure why it’s taken me this long to try one considering I’ve been curious about it since watching that one episode.

In any case, I popped my cannoli cherry this weekend at the Italian festival in Endicott, NY, known as St. Anthony’s Italian Feast Days.

There were several food vendors, games for the little ones, live music, and wonderful home-made treats.

Aside from the cannoli, which was really freakin’ good, the tiramisu was also the best I’ve ever had. Normally, I’m not really a dessert person but it was just so delicious I took more than my usual one bite. It didn’t have too much rum, it wasn’t too sweet, the cake wasn’t too spongy…it was heaven in one bite. Ok, it was more like two. Ok, fine. Three. I also tried these things called Spiedies, which is marinated chicken, lamb, or beef on top of some type of Italian bread. They only had lamb Spiedies at the festival so I had that and because I am also wheat-sensitive, it was my intent to just have the lamb and maybe taste a little of the bread. Nope. The bread, while very ordinary-looking, tasted phenomenal so I decided to just suffer the consequences later. I’ll be back on my strict health-nut eating the rest of the week, I promise, body.

I had a lot of fun at the festival. I even ran into someone I knew that I didn’t meet at the gym! Speaking of my gym, the whole reason I knew about the festival is because they had mentioned it to me last minute earlier that day. I have to say, now that it’s gotten warmer and more events are going on (we all went to the Greek Festival last week) it’s really nice to be going out as a group. I mean, I see them pretty much everyday at the gym but it’s just nice to see them outside of the gym too. I also found out that one couple is also a foodie and wino so I have even more people to hit up when the foodie in me wants to play!

It was also really nice when one of them talked to me about how I could actually move here. He asked me what I did because he was thinking that there could be something in his company for me. It didn’t seem to be the case, but I was really touched that he genuinely wanted to help me out. Him, my co-worker, and my co-worker’s wife have all tried thinking of ways to help me…it’s just such a strange but wonderful feeling to have just met people who already genuinely care about me. I mean, I’ve only been here since the end of January, which makes it a little less than 6 months. I lived in Lake Forest for over 6 months and it wasn’t until shortly before I moved to Binghamton when I started to get close to people. I’ve been here in less time and I’m already way past that. It’s amazing. I can see what my friends who are originally from the east coast mean when they say that east coasters are different. I mean, I love my west coast peeps, but unless you’ve already found your bubble, which I’m very fortunate to have even now being far away, it’s very difficult to meet people who will become your genuine friends. Just to give an example, the only people I still keep in regular contact with from back home are the people in my awesome bubble and my family. Even the ones I was starting to get close to in Lake Forest I haven’t talked to as much as when I first moved. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t begrudge them or anything. It’s just an observation and one that makes me even more grateful for having met these wonderful people. I could be wrong. If I end up moving back (which I highly doubt) or moving someplace else in the east coast I could very well lose contact with my new friends. But I don’t think so. At least, not the handful of people that I already feel very close to.

I’m not sure why I’m even thinking about that though. You know, since I’ll be moving here and that theory won’t ever get tested. 😉