Santa Con Birthdays and Chocolate Chip Donut Bagels

Up until last Saturday, I had no idea what Santa Con even was until I realized that it was out to compete with my birthday via hipster Santa Clauses and slutty Mrs. Clauses.  As Jenna Marbles puts it, there is a time and place for slutty dress-up games, and that time is known as Halloween.  Santa is supposed to be jolly and happy and full of merry, not ecstasy (oh yes, it gets better).  

But I digress.  I'm actually here to say that I had a kick-ass birthday.  I don't know about you guys, but I don't really have one set group of friends -- they're more like little grouplets.  People from high school, people from college, people who came back to NYC post-college, people who stayed in the Bean.  It was so great to have everyone together in one bar (one amazing bar, by the way.  I highly recommend Whiskey Town, brother bar of the Whiskey Brooklyn & Whiskey Tavern, to anyone.  Great people, great atmosphere.  PAC MAN MACHINE.  There's no way you can go wrong here, really.)     

Naturally, people bought me a lot of happy juice and I ended up dancing with a Santa Claus whose hat I demanded to wear.  Everything was going great until he decided to announce that he was on ecstasy and even in my tipsy state of being, I managed to say something along the lines of "HAHA BYE!"  I was later told that Nibs stepped in and karate chopped him.  (Reason number #314 as to why my friends are wonderful.)  Had she not done so, I probably would have resorted to drunk krav, which, let's face it, would've been really amusing and somehow would have made its way onto YouTube.  Instead I let Nibs do her thang and went back to dancing to Blackstreet's "No Diggity."  Told you this bar was awesome.  

Highlight of the evening (other than drugged Santa):  

I love everyone when I'm in my happy place.

So to recap:  Kisses, yummy drinks, friends, and the occasional Santa on ecstasy.  Can't say it was a boring birthday. 

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... and it got even better the next day!  Yes, I had I had a hangover, (I'm a feisty krav fighter, not Wonder Woman), but I schlepped myself to the Brainery for a class on how to make no-knead bread and it was a ton of fun!  I am not a huge baker (this will change once I move into a new apartment), but I absolutely LOVE bread to the point that it was my nickname as a baby.  So when a fellow Brainery teacher invited me to his class, I couldn't say no.  

I ended up baking something that kind of resembled a large donut/bagel but was filled with chocolate chips inside.  Some call it bizarre, I call it a masterpiece.  It doesn't really matter because any combination of dough and dark chocolate chips will taste incredible.  And it did.  

You know you want some o' this sugah.

I do have the recipe for anyone interested, so if you want it, just shoot us a comment!  


And if you want to learn how to fend off inebriated men in red suits, I can be of service there as well.    


-Beetle, xx