Tips For Food Transport

Anyone that cooks often transports food to various places and activities, Potluck Dinners, Family Reunions, Church Picnics, and Food for the bereaved, just to name a few.  Here are some tips to make the process easier and hopefully gets your food to its destination intact.    

Use A Cooler

Use a cooler to transport HOT foods as well as cold.  To keep food hot, line the cooler with your tablecloth or dish towels (this insulates as well as keeps food from sliding) and place hot food in cooler.  This works much better than a regular box and keeps the food hot until it gets to where you are going.  Use a separate cooler for cold items.

Buy Dishes at Yard Sales

Buy plates and pans at yard sales, garage sales, and thrift stores... These are usually less expensive than disposable plates and pans and can be left behind or passed on.  The next time you take food to the bereaved or a funeral, use a plate bought at a yard sale to take a cake or a container that you picked up.   Attach a tag that you have written a message such as "This plate does not need to be returned fill it up again and pass it on"  The recipient will be grateful that they don't have to worry about getting it back to you and you saved money by not having to buy aluminum or disposable containers and you don't have to worry that you will not get Grandma's caketaker back.

Take your own plates and eating utensils

Once again, buy plates and eating utensils at yard sales and thrift stores, take these with you on church picnics and other outings.  It is much easier to eat from "solid" plates than disposable, also consider that you are saving the planet by keeping foam and paper out of landfills.  Take along extra to share with others.  Place them in a plastic bag and tote back home to be placed into the dishwasher, then place them into the cooler that you used so that they will be ready for the next trip. (hint: these do NOT have to match)

Plan What Food You Take

1.  Is it easy to transport?

2.  Does it hold up well enough to be eaten later?

3.  Does it require minimum heat/cold?

4.  Will it look as appetizing once it gets there as when it did out of the oven?

5.  Take with you any serving utensils that are needed.

6. A wet dishcloth sealed in a zip lock bag always comes in handy.

Pies

Tinfoil is your best friend when transporting pies. If you're transporting just one pie, take an extra metal pie tin, flip it upside down and use it to tent the pie. Then seal the edges of the two pie tins together with a strip of tinfoil. Just to reiterate: You don't want a pie to hit you in the back of the head if you get in an accident, so secure it in the trunk. Use the grippy-drawer-liner technique to keep the pie from sliding around, or better yet, stash it in the laundry basket next to your casserole.
To transport two pies, place them side by side on a baking sheet, wrap tinfoil around the pies and baking sheet, and then secure the tinfoil around the baking sheet's edges. Store the baking sheet in your trunk with a grippy drawer liner under it to keep it from sliding around.

 All Those Yummy Leftovers
 
If you're going to take some goodies back home, be prepared and arrive with your own plastic storage containers and zip-close plastic bags, also take a roll of aluminum foil. Pack a load of disposable plastic containers in a reusable fabric bag. You can pack the containers full and have a convenient tote at the ready to carry them to the car.