The Last Supper

Last birthday post (at least until next year). I love my birthday, and I like to drag the celebration out for a good week. Today, I held a birthday potluck at my house with all my friends. We usually have a big throw-down weekend party, but this Sunday afternoon party had a very special theme.

I'm 33 now, the same age as Jesus when he died. And for years, I've been dreaming about having a Last Supper-themed potluck for my 33rd birthday. I'm not religious, but I do love the kitschy factor. I called the event The Last Supper: Bianca's Birthday Potluck of Biblical Portions. Clever, no?

Anyway, we had the party on a Sunday around 2 p.m. so we could pretend it was a good old Southern church potluck. We dressed like church ladies and stuffed ourselves with casseroles. Cassi went with the classic church suit. I had some kind of crazy 80s Designing Women thing going on. And Sheridan was more Stepford Wives. By the way, Cassi provided the fabulous church hats, courtesy of her grandma.

Unfortunately, casseroles don't look terribly sexy in photographs, so the pics you're about to see don't do these baked classics justice. I made my Mama's Hash Brown Casserole from Cookin' Crunk (shredded hash browns, Daiya cheese, vegan cream of mushroom soup, onions, and vegan sour cream topped with cornflakes).

I went to plenty of Southern church potlucks as a kid, and nearly EVERYTHING is covered in either cornflakes, crumbled potato chips, and French fried onions. I was so happy Sheridan made a Green Bean Casserole topped with fried onions!

Cassi brought Baked Spaghetti topped with melted slices of Daiya Cheddar. That's another thing you see at all these potlucks — cheese slices melted atop casseroles. Classic!

Greg made a crucifix with green beans in his Green Bean & Squash Casserole. It was topped with a nooch cheese sauce and vegan bacon bits!!

Diane gets points for bringing the healthy dish to the smorgasbord of brown casseroles. This is Spaghetti Squash and Artichokes.

Another dish present at every church potluck is Ro-Tel Dip in a crock pot. Mike took care of that with his amazing and creamy Daiya Ro-Tel (just melted Daiya, Ro-Tel from a can, and almond milk).

Shay made her famous Vegan Pizza! She makes everything from scratch — the crust, the sauce. This time, she topped the pizza with mushrooms and Beyond Meat chicken.

Stephanie always brings the sweets because she's our local vegan dessert master. This was a Mock Eclair Cake. Soooo good! It's made with layers of vegan pudding, vegan cream cheese, vegan whipped cream, graham crackers, and chocolate frosting!

I made a dessert too! The Sweet Potato Pie from Dynise Balcavage's new pie book, Pies and Tarts with Heart. But I'm on Dynise's blog review tour on Wednesday, so I'll save the picture for that post.

Oh, and I almost forgot. We washed everything down with vegan communion wine FROM A BOX! We really classed things up today. This Bully Hill Vineyard Red Table Wine was just a tad sweet, and it reminded me of the wine we drank in church when I went through my Catholic phase in high school.

The devil even made an appearance! Here's Misti with Demon Greg.

We had a lovely time! Hallelujah!