Holiday Travel Tips

Holidays, parties, cookie swaps. This is the time of year when people are traveling with food! If you're not hosting an event, but you're still contributing a dish, there are ways to get your goodies there safe, in one piece, and still delicious!

Covering the floor of your trunk with towels helps keep containers from sliding around. And, if something does spill, it makes clean up easy.Wrapping casserole dishes in towels helps keep the temperature and provides protection from dishes bumping into each other.

You may have a beautiful serving dish, but that doesn't mean it should be the dish your food travels in. It is almost always a better idea to bring both separately. Liquids, like gravies and soups can be transported in thermoses so they stay hot and transferred to their serving containers on arrival.

Crock pots are excellent for transporting dishes and make for easy reheating that doesn't require your host to fit you into the (probably) over crowded oven. Stuffing, mashed potatoes, turnips, all work very well reheating in a crock pot (even if you don't initially cook them there).Coolers are usually meant to keep cold food cold, but they can also keep hot food hot. Wrap the dishes in aluminum foil to help maintain their heat. You can also warm foil wrapped bricks in the oven and pack them in with the food to keep the cooler warm.

The big issue with cookies, pies, and cakes is that they are so easily messed up in transport. Sure, they'll taste just as good no matter how they look, but when you've put the work into decorating, you want it to show.

There are plenty of transporters available to purchase that will keep your baked goods safe during the trip, but if you don't bake enough to justify the purchase, you can "hack" a carrying case with cereal boxes, aluminum foil, cardboard boxes and the like. Basically you want to create a container that keeps the base of the baked good stable, and is able to cover the top without touching the décor. 

Planning ahead is key and can ensure that your food arrives ready to celebrate with you!