Counter-intuitive hint for transporting hot dishes to a party: use a cooler

M

marilynfl

Moderator
We just had our holiday luncheon yesterday and one engineer brought in a 9x12 pyrex dish filled with hot, creamy scalloped potatoes.

I asked him this morning how he re-heated it since our area only has a small microwave. He said he had baked the dish half-way through the night before, then yesterday morning he topped it with parmesan cheese and finished the baking. Then he wrapped it in a towel, popped the dish in a cooler and came into work at 6:45 am. We ate at 11:30 and this dish was still hot and creamy, with a dark crust of cheese. Be still, my beating, clogged heart.

I'm stealing this idea since my dishes are always too big to fit in our munchkin microwave.

 
I have to chuckle. Remember back many years when we were still at Gail's...

AND, I think many years ago here too- I wrote a ton about catering parties with no facilities to work from. We used to divide the back of our truck into two sections- and we made a "hot box" out of one and a "cold box" out of the other using this same method. Wrap the hot stuff in towels, stuff crumpled newspaper all around and on top or put in cardboard boxes and stuff newspaper all around. Then we'd cover it all with layers of towels. Cold box we'd put down plastic garbage bags, nestle cold stuff in ice, put plastic over, crumple newspapers all over, then cover with layers of towels. I learned this in girl scouts as a kid. Works every time.

 
One Christma we were to be celebrating at my Mom's house. . .

She was an hour away, and did not have an oven in which to cook the full Rib Roast. I cooked the roast at our house to just below 130ºF and then covered the roast in foil, sealing the foil to the pan. Then I wrapped the whole sealed pan in lots of newspaper then wrapped that whole thing in clean bath towels then placed the package in our car, on a blanket and covered in in a blanket. Drove the hour to Mom's and when we cut the roast it was perfectly reddish-pink from edge to edge--and it was good!

Low-tech works quite well!

 
One of my friends always says that the Thermos is the smartest invention ever.....

It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold. How does it know????

 
One of my fav Goodwill purchases - a big thermos pot with a click top flip up lid

it may be pink/covered in pink flowers but it's perfect to bring a pot of chili or the like to a tailgate.

 
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