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You know, abstractly, that your life is about to radically change when you have a baby. People warn you, loudly and often and sometimes a little too smugly, about the sleep deprivation, the diapers, the inconsolable tears. But, much like falling in love or, I’m told, doing psychedelics, you can’t truly understand until you experience it for yourself.

My daughter was born in September of 2022 – Labor Day, a little on the nose if you ask me – and since then our lives have been wildly rearranged in ways large and small. There is so much more laughter and love, so much less sleeping in late on weekends or casually leaving full glasses precariously close to the edge of the coffee table.

And, so far, for now, the luxurious meals of our wild, carefree youth have receded into memory. Spending hours lovingly rolling out pasta dough and building a lasagna from scratch for fun feels laughable when you are shadowed by a tiny, wonderful demon who howls and tugs at your ankles whenever she’s set down for a moment, or worse, goes suspiciously quiet in a living room I once thought cozy and now know to be riddled with concussion potential.

Going to dinner with a baby (now toddler) in tow is a production if not an outright impossibility. Despite her good looks and charm, my daughter’s tendencies to shout at strangers and hurl food to the ground would be frowned upon in classier joints, and her insistence on an early bedtime – no matter how much I try to convince her that the Spaniards, with their 10 p.m. meals, have the right idea – puts a damper on any prime-time reservations. She doesn’t have the palate to appreciate a nice glass of wine even if you offered it to her.

That’s how we became brunch people. The shift most reviled by hospitality workers is, as it turns out, a new parent’s dream. I have lived several lifetimes by the time the hair-of-the-dog crowd rolls up for a 10:30 a.m. reservation, and the chaotic edge that’s always present when there’s a baby in the mix feels nicely suited to the easygoing bedhead energy of the Saturday morning crowd.

One weekend last summer, my husband and I plunked our then-baby into a high chair in Terlingua’s backyard, ordered a couple cocktails, a succotash starter and assorted Tex-Mex delights, and felt, however fleetingly, like perhaps we had a handle on this whole parenting thing.

A few days later, I pushed my stroller to the grocery store to amass supplies to riff on that succotash, which happens to be both delicious and – chopping aside – low-lift enough to make one-handed while holding a baby on your hip (or, perhaps, a beer in your hand). It’s also chock full of vegetables, which lends it a certain wholesomeness that might be occasionally lacking if you are, say, a tired parent who sometimes bare-hands cereal out of the box in lieu of making yourself a nutritious meal.

I don’t think the 10 p.m. dinners and afternoons making lasagna Bolognese are gone for good, but in the meantime, it’s nice to have a few easy options in the mix to remind you that you were once a person who loved to cook.

TERLINGUA-INSPIRED SUCCOTASH

This dish is tasty on its own, but I like it cold, served with tortilla chips or tossed with chopped spinach for an easy salad. It’ll kick around the fridge for a few days just fine. Terlingua tops its version with a drizzle of mayo and a lime wedge; I’ve opted here for an extra-piquant lime-mayo dressing. They also add a sprinkle of crushed chips – I had none on hand, but I suspect Doritos would be perfect here, if you’re feeling bold.

About that mayonnaise, I am from the South and thus partial to Duke’s, which, in Maine, I have so far only found on the shelves at Friends & Family, on Congress Street in Portland. I generally order mine online or haul home multiple jars in a suitcase on trips out of state. If you are persnickety about mayo, it’s worth trying if only to fully understand the Great Mayo Wars. If not, Hellmann’s is perfectly fine.

1 tablespoon olive oil
½ yellow onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
12 ounces frozen corn or kernels from 4-5 ears fresh corn
1 zucchini, diced
1 cup chopped green beans
2 (15.5 ounce) cans butter beans, drained and rinsed
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1½ tablespoons lime juice
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
Cayenne pepper

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until translucent, then add the bell pepper, corn, zucchini and the green and butter beans. Cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are slightly softened but retain some bite. Season with salt and pepper and taste each step of the way.

Combine the mayonnaise and lime juice in a large bowl and beat vigorously with a fork until no clumps of mayonnaise remain. Add the paprika and a dash or two of cayenne to your liking.

Toss the vegetables in the mayo-lime dressing until they are thoroughly coated. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed.

Lila Harron Battis. Photo by Carla Tracy

MEET THE COOK, LILA HARRON BATTIS

I’m a Portland-based freelance writer and editor by trade, and I’ve been food-obsessed for as long as I can remember. I bought my first cookbook – a black-and-white 1985 Jill Krementz book for children – with my allowance at a library sale when I was around seven, set my first (and so far only!) kitchen fire in an ill-fated attempt at focaccia when I was ten, and have been in love with cooking ever since.

I grew up in North Carolina, so Southern food will forever taste like home to me, though my parents are New Englanders. To me, food has always been the natural entry point for getting to know a place – perhaps why I have collected so many vintage cookbooks from Maine in the four years I’ve lived here.

I’m the mom to a two-year-old, so lately my culinary life is less luxurious and more workaday. These days, entertaining means warming some olives with lemon zest and herbs or skewering a few Gildas – or, let’s be honest, grabbing a pizza at Monte’s – and hanging in the backyard with friends, grazing one-handed while running after my daughter. Cooking for fun makes me feel like myself, but for now I’m leaning on dishes that while tasty are not too-too fussy or overwrought.