Transporting Pyrex, haven't been here in a while

[vilasman]

I havent been in here in ages... been busy...
In any case my wife who is the real cook in the house , has finally succombed and joined the hospitality committee at church and they have decided to have a cooking competition. They arent calling it that, but...
The are having the 7 last words for easter and they are selling these $.50 tickets and you can get a small piece of whatever for each ticket. Church full of hungery people, 6 or 7 women anxiously standing behind dishes on tables arrayed in the basement...

One of the ladies , when they decided to do this, had had COLLEGE STUDENTS over for dinner the previous week. She went on about how they didn't eat any of the food and they didnt appreciate home cooking, and they were to use to eating fast food.

Life is sweet in the land of dillusion....

And she was they main person saying that she wanted to bring more than one dish.

Mind you wife is 30, the rest of these ladies are mid 50's and older

In any case , when my wife told me about this , I told her she should remove herself from the competition, cause it wouldn't be fair, it would be embarrassing (to the others) it just wouldn't be right. But then I quite cause she could use the ego boost and it would help her to go on the regular.

I've been going to this church for over 30 years and the last great cook there died in the kitchen, well she had a heart attack at church, while serving and died about 4 days later, her mom did the almost the same thing a few years later,

but i digress

My wife and her mom are the best cooks I have run across since, which is part of the reason, she's my wife.

When I told my mom about it, she all ready to go and support her daughter in law. My wife and my mom get along like sterotypical wife's and inlaws,
which is made worse by the fact that there's almost 40 years between them. But mom's knows she will be in the lime light that day.

So anyway, back to my question.

I think wife is going to take 3 dishes, greens,mac and cheese and sweet potato suffle' with the nuts and stuff on it. I think we are going to take a 10x15 a 9x13 and a 8x8 pyrex of each thing. 9 dishes total. That way if those folks don't appreciate good food, It's already split up and one can go home with my mom and another to my aunt.

I am trying to figure out what's the safest way to get them from home to church, we will be warming them at church and I want to put something decorative like a skirt around them on the table.
Somewhere in my mind I get the impression that pyrex makes transporter bags or sleeves for like the 9x13 or the 8x8, but I wouldn't know where to get them with out buying more dishes and we have enough pyrex around here now to stock a factory outlet store and I don't think I ever saw one for a 10x15.

Any thoughts?

 

[Andy M.]

We use grocery bags and newspaper. The newspaper insulates the dish, keeping heat in and provides a cushion against bumps. The (paper) grocery bag holds it all together.

 

[Gretchen]

You could stack them in a cooler lined with newspaper. You could put them on the floor board of the car and carry them individually. The "sleeves" you are describing are used to keep food hot or cold with the inserts they come with, not necessarily for protection.

 

[Alix]

I use towels to wrap the dishes. Keeps them warm, and they don't move around as much with the cloth supporting them.

 

[vilasman]

I like the towel ideas, it's a 45 min drive from my house to church, but only 5 from my mom's to church, I was thinking yesterday to warm it at mom's and then take it to church.

Any guess on how long you could keep a dish at a serving temp in a cooler?

Also I've used a big cooler to transport frozen or chilled dishes but I haven't found a one that my pyrexs will really fit into. You sort of have make a framework to support each layer

 

[jkath]

In the back area on your car (where you'd put groceries), you can lay the 8x8s next to each other like puzzle pieces, flat, but wrapped with newspaper around the edges. Then, put a good stack of newspaper on top of them. The put the 9x13s on top of those. Repeat procedure and add the 10x15s. Add newspaper to the top. If there's any room on the sides, put pillows to keep the dishes secure. Theory: if you start with the smallest, the larger dish on top can't ruin that which is below it. Hope this made sense, vilasman, and I'm so glad to see you back here! Best of luck to your wife!

 

[purrfectlydevine]

Better to warm at Mom's. I do know that a cooked turkey, put in a cooler to transport, continued to cook. It didn't dry out, but fell off the bones. Mom uses sturdy corrugated cardboard boxes with newspaper on the bottom and towels tucked around the dishes.