Have yourself a monastic holiday, angels

If you're like most red-blooded, blue-state Americans and only step into a ecclesial place once a year, you might as well do it for a good cause. Charity, yes, but we're talking about making your stomach happy in the process. (Oh dear, did that sound blasphemous?)

Though it's available throughout the year, the reknowned pumpkin bread from The Monastery of the Angels in Hollywood doesn't really register in our conscience (read, our belly) until the holidays when it actually makes sense to infuse ourselves with the potpourri of all-spice, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. 

And, the sisters do make a mean pumpkin bread. It's moist without being overly greasy, dense with a good crumb. It's nearly two pounds, doesn't come with any nutritional information (probably a smart thing) and costs about eight dollars. Yes, hefty in every sense of the word. Especially considering that the nuns are wickedly good at upselling their goods. We wanted one. The good sister at the register insisted we needed two. Uh, okay...

Yeah, it felt kinda scary like that, so you can understand why we didn't say no.

We also thought we saw his royal Councilmember-ness Tom LeBonge—who's rumored to carry a trunkload of bread as impromptu gifts—in front of us with eight loaves. Lugging 15 pounds of pumpkin bread stuff? That's impressive. He must have had to restock after encountering the Victoria Secret's Angels last week during their Walk of Fame ceremony. You know what porkers those Angels are. You should really get a load of them naked.

—Jiyeon Yoo