Thanksgiving on the Road: Three Recipes That Travel Well

For anyone with family in distant cities or overseas, Thanksgiving may no longer look like a Norman Rockwell painting. Rather than the traditional meal at home, many take their feast on the road. To pull this off, let convenience be your watchword.

The first rule is to use good sense when transporting perishable ingredients, especially anything with uncooked poultry, meat and eggs. Once I brought this Pumpkin Mousse to the home of some friends who lived a couple of hours away. To maintain a safe temperature, I put it in a Styrofoam cooler along with frozen gel ice packs and rolled-up newspapers to keep the bowl stable. When I arrived, their refrigerator was stuffed, so the mousse remained safely in my container until dessert.

If possible, make time-consuming recipes or those that involve difficult-to-find products ahead and bring them with you. For these Mushroom Swirls to be at their flaky, buttery best, the high-quality, all-butter frozen puff pastry needs to be slowly defrosted before the filling is made. They can be baked several days before the meal and stored in a cookie tin. Before serving, they are refreshed in a toaster oven or on a sheet pan.

If you plan on preparing food at your destination, select recipes with readily available ingredients such as the ones in this Corn Shrimp Chowder. You want to spend your time enjoying family and friends, not running around unfamiliar markets.—Joanna Pruess

Try These On-the-Road Thanksgiving Recipes

Mushroom Swirls

Corn Shrimp Chowder

Spicy Pumpkin Mousse

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