The Easter Brunch

Easter Sunday is not only a religious holiday but a time to gather with friends and family after church and enjoy the real start of Spring. We often kick our brunch off with a wine tasting. It a great way to start a party and get ready for a meal. Since we are never able to gather up houseterns to help out on Easter, so we like to make an extra easy menu but at the same time, delicious. We also make sure that our Five Senses rule is set into motion so the party has a fun vibe.

As we mapped out Easter, we took into consideration the various dietary restrictions by guests from the gluten-free crowd, pescatarians, vegetarians and those with allergies, mostly to nuts and dairy. This does not mean we have to make three different types of appetizers, side dishes and main dishes as that would be a daunting task. We plan the menu to make sure there is at least one dish each guest can eat.

Here is an Easter menu that hits most buttons:

First up, the Starters:

These toasts were inspired from a restaurant in NYC we go to often, tucked down an alley in the East Village you can find Freeman’s, a funky spot that gives the feel of a hunting lodge, just with JZ and Beyonce sitting down for dinner.

You can make all the veggies in advance as well as the green goddess dressing and just whip out of the refrigerator so guests can have a crisp snack while they have a drink or two before the wine tasting and/or brunch.

For the buffet I like to keep it simple with the side dishes all made in advance so all that is needed is to grill the main dish and everything is all set. This year we will do lamb kabobs, baked shrimp lasagna and grilled vegetables with feta. The lasagna is a variation of a Greek Pastitsio which has a lot of flavor to it and can be serve to the pescatarians’ as their main dish. We keep desert easy so we whip out some cookies and since strawberries are in season we are going to open up the LPB test kitchen and try to make our once famous Crazy Cake.