Never Planned on You Dinner Menu
Recipes from my upcoming novel
Hi friends,
We are a little over two weeks out from the launch of Never Planned on You and I am so excited! Like my first book, NPOY is very food-centric, which is no surprise since I love to cook, host, and of course, eat.
Scenes that take place around the dinner table are a ton of fun to both read and write. Dinner parties can reveal a lot about a character’s traits and interpersonal dynamics, and that’s especially true when you throw relatives into the mix. So when I was drafting this book, I decided a Shabbat dinner scene would be a great way to reveal how Ali sees herself within the fabric of her family.
When I was a kid, my mom hosted Shabbat dinner for our entire extended family every Friday night. They weren’t particularly religious—other than eating challah, we didn’t participate in any rituals and the food itself wasn’t traditional—but these dinners were the highlight of my week. I loved spending time with my family and eating a great meal before rounding out the evening with ABC’s TGIF line-up (IYKYK!). My favorite dinner was sweet and sour chicken. My mom would do it all up with fried rice, egg rolls, and crispy wontons, and it was simply the best. So when I mapped out this scene, I decided to write that whole meal right into the book.
If you’ve read an early copy of Never Planned on You and wished you had a seat at the Rubin table, you’re in luck. I’ve written out the entire menu from chapter three, so you can recreate it at home. Check out the full details and recipes below:
Appetizers:
Crispy wonton noodles + duck sauce for dipping (I like the sweet and sour flavor, but my husband, like Ali, prefers the spicy version)
Egg rolls (I like these)
Asian Chopped Salad (or make your life easier and grab this one from Wegmans)
Challah! (If you’re going store-bought, Rosendorf’s is the GOAT).
Main Course:
Fried Rice (I use the rice recipe only from this recipe)
Dessert:
Fresh fruit salad
I recently hosted a Shabbat dinner for some of my friends and made a few of these recipes! You can watch me prepare it here:
Let me know if you host a dinner and use any of these recipes! And of course, if you haven’t already done so, please preorder a copy of Never Planned on You!
Until next time,
Lindsay