Exhaustion reigns when a new baby arrives. Between the 2 a.m. feedings, endless diaper changes and extreme sleep deprivation, merely getting dressed becomes a herculean effort. And don’t even get us started on cooking one-handed while a purple-faced infant howls in your ear.

Thank heavens for grandparents, colleagues and neighbors, because one of the loveliest rituals that accompanies new motherhood is the parade of dinners, lovingly delivered by family and friends. There’s lasagna, to be sure, but also chicken casseroles, rustic pasta dishes and, if you’re lucky enough to be a friend of Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan, a taco box filled to the brim with carnitas, tortillas, guacamole and other Tex-Mex embellishments.

The New York food blogger learned the value of those dinner deliveries when she had her daughter five years ago.

“There wasn’t this parade of food I thought was going to happen,” she says. “My mom couldn’t stay very long. I was struggling. I was so hungry from nursing and what I was craving was really flavorful food.”

These days, Gillingham-Ryan is the first dinner-deliverer on the scene when a friend has a baby ― and she returns with another offering a few months later, when the novelty has worn off and the in-laws have decamped. And the co-founder of ApartmentTherapy.com and its TheKitchn blog has gotten those dinners down to a science or, more specifically, a Taco Box.

Sometimes the box holds tortillas, toppings and a container of her favorite Heat Wave Carnitas, a slow cooker recipe she devised one summer when the mercury crested the triple-digit mark and it was too darn hot to turn on the stove.

Sometimes the Taco Box doesn’t contain tacos at all. She’ll bring white lasagna with prosciutto and mushrooms instead, or the Guinness-braised chicken she includes in her latest Williams-Sonoma cookbook, “Good Food to Share” (Weldon Owen, $29.95, 224 pages). She packs all the goodies in a wine crate for easy transport ― although a grocery bag will do, too ― and always tucks in some flowers.

“I definitely like a nice presentation,” she says. “I’m not a big plastic person, but for this, don’t make a lasagna in your grandmother’s casserole dish and expect to get it back anytime soon. I put everything in little freezer bags so people can have one for dinner and put some in the freezer.”

Gillingham-Ryan isn’t the only gourmet mom with an arsenal of good dinner-delivery recipes, of course.

“I’m the queen of curry,” says San Francisco food blogger Simran Singh, co-founder of the blog A Little Yumminess, “I send Indian food, because everyone sends lasagna.”

Curries, lentils, tandoori chicken, spinach and sag paneer are all terrific choices, she says. And when Singh is too crunched for time, she turns to her slow cooker to whip up a Tex-Mex batch of Chicken Verde. It’s an easy crowd-pleaser that can be made in bulk, she says, which ensures your family gets dinner, too.

“‘Kill many birds with one stone’ should be the mom mantra,” Singh says.

Penne with Tuscan Meat Sauce is the go-to dish for Leslie Pease, co-founder of the new Back to the Table Cooking School, which will open July 12 in Lafayette. Pease uses a heavy-duty foil casserole that can go from freezer to oven, and that requires zero dishwashing, which makes it all the more appealing for new, sleep-deprived parents.

“It’s a little more sophisticated than spaghetti and meatballs,” Pease says, “and I haven’t found one person who hasn’t liked it.”

That’s how Tammy Braas-Hill feels about her favorite recipes, too. The cookbook chairman for the Junior League of San Francisco goes straight to the league’s “San Francisco Entertains” cookbook (Favorite Recipes Press, $32, 176 pages), published last year. And there’s no one, she says, who doesn’t love the Chicken with Kalamata Olives and Lemons. The dish is easy to make and transport. It multiplies easily, reheats well and any leftovers will be wonderful served over green salad the next day.

Soups are always appreciated, too, Braas-Hill says, and you can package toppings and garnishes for potato leek soup or chicken-tortilla soup separately.

“Make the tortilla soup ahead,” she says. “Then put avocado with a sprinkle of lemon, cheese, sour cream, cilantro leaves ― don’t chop them or they’ll turn black ― in little takeout containers.”

Of course, it’s not just new moms who appreciate a dinner delivery. Anyone dealing with a family illness or hospitalization needs a helping hand. too. Braas-Hill brings her elderly neighbors either the chicken or a Greek-style sea bass dish, wrapped in parchment, and quickly roasted.

Don’t forget dessert, she says. Add butterscotch peanut butter chips and Tcho chocolate chips to a Tollhouse-style recipe. Bake them yourself as drop-cookies, or roll the dough into a log and freeze it, so your friends can slice and bake the cookies whenever they need a little pick-me-up.

“That,” she says, “would be a cool kind of gift.”

By Jackie Burrell

(San Jose Mercury News)
(MCT Information Services)