Easter Brunch with the Bitches

Nearly every Sunday, a few of my friends and I get together at Imagine Vegan Cafe for brunch. It's a tradition that goes back years — as far as back as 2011. My brunch crew has changed over the years. Some people have stopped coming, others have joined on. And there was about a year in there when Imagine briefly stopped serving brunch. But nonetheless, the tradition is alive and well. And I'd say the little core group we have now is made of up of some of the best lady friends a girl could have. We like to call our squad "Bitches Who Brunch."

Imagine closes for Easter Sunday though, and we couldn't bear the thought of taking a week off. So last Sunday, as we were brunching at Imagine and discussing what we would do with Imagine being closed, Stephanie threw out the idea of an Easter brunch potluck. Somehow, we managed to convince Pam to host. We invited some more folks, and while most couldn't come due to Easter family obligations (including Megan, one of our solid weekly crew), we managed a group of six!

Here's Pam (our host), Jason and Susan, and Stephanie. Not pictured is Pam's roomie Dandelion. I love this awkward picture because Pam's giant tree centerpiece is totally blocking everyone's faces.

Selfie with Stephanie time!

Of course, we started with cocktails. I brought stuff to make vegan bloody marys — locally made (and totally vegan) Nikki's Hot Ass Bloody Mary mix, Svedka, pickles (a MUST!), olives, and celery.

And of course Pam, the wino of the group, had orange juice and champagne ready for our mimosas. I had a bloody mary as a pre-brunch cocktail and a mimosa with my food.

I brought a Breakfast Casserole, based off this non-vegan recipe that my mom first veganized for me a few weeks back. For the crust, I lined the dish with Immaculate Baking Company crescent rolls. That's topped with Gimme Lean vegan sausage, Follow Your Heart Vegan Egg, Daiya cheddar, and a homemade country gravy based off my recipe in Cookin' Crunk.

Pam loves tofu quiche, probably more than anything in the world (except for maybe red wine). So Stephanie brought one of her famous Vegan Quiches. So good! We all took leftovers of everything home, and I wanted a quiche slice to take home, but I knew Pam really wanted all the leftover quiche for herself so I forfeited my slice to her. 

Susan and Jason brought these fluffy Chocolate Chip Pancakes that were so good! I did get to take a few of those home, and I can't wait to eat them for lunch tomorrow. These pancakes made me question why I don't always put chocolate chips in my pancakes. Seriously, chocolate chips belong in pancakes.

And they brought Hash Browns too. Brunch isn't complete without hash browns.

We had dessert covered! Stephanie brought these AMAZING Sticky Buns. The topping tasted almost like toffee! It's a bit hard to tell in this picture because it looks like one dish pan, but these were individual cinnamon roll-style buns.

Pam made the CUTEST dessert I've ever seen. Seriously. Aren't these Bird's Nests ridiculous? And they're mouth-watering too. The nest is made from crunchy chow mein noodles, peanut butter, and chocolate, so they're salty-sweet. And the little eggs are Jordan almonds (some brands aren't vegan, but Pam sourced some vegan ones).

Yesterday, Pam, her daughter Lily, and Dandelion had a little Easter sugar cookie fun, and they had these out on the table. I ended up taking one for the road because I was just too full to try one at the potluck. It'll be a perfect treat for tomorrow.

I think we may have to make this a new Easter tradition!