The kids will be out of school before long. It's time to
be thinking about that annual trek to see the family in
Kansas. Or maybe this year, you'll slip out and see the
Grand Canyon. The kids will love it -- you think. This year
they'll be a little older, a little more patient. You'll
take a little more time, make more stops.
Chances are, the kids will love it a little more with cookies.
Kids like cookies. Besides, they need to refuel more often
than adults and cookies are a better choice than the candy
and pop at the next service station. Cookies even make good
bribes: "If you quit teasing your sister, I'll let
you have another cookie."
Yes, cookies can make the trip better.
But let's get the right kind of cookies. They have to be
cookies that kids like. Your favorite cookie may be your
child's untouchable. I have one son that will not touch
a cookie with nuts. So much for the walnut chocolate chippers.
I have another son that won't touch chocolate. (Strange,
isn't it?) So make sure that you are packing cookies that
the kids really want.
Some cookies just weren't built for the road. Cookies that
smash together easily, crumble into pieces, or turn into
gooey messes in the back seat of the car just aren't meant
for the road. You don't want to open the cookie box to find
a crumbling, melting mass or swivel in your seat to find
chocolate all over Johnny and squished cookies all over
the upholstery. Pick a neat, tough cookie that travels well.
And you've got a trip to get ready for. You can't spend
half a day making cookies the day before the trip. Choose
a cookie that goes together in a hurry or that you can make
well ahead of time. Bar cookies are a good choice. Spread
the dough in a pan and bake them all at once. Refrigerator
cookies may be an even better choice; mix them up a week
ahead and bake them before leaving. And if you can find
a good mix, that works too.
So we're looking for cookies that the kids like, that travel
well, and don't take a lot of work when we're getting ready
for the trip. We're do we find such cookies?
BAR COOKIES
Bar cookies are so convenient because you don't have to
shape individual cookies or run multiple batches through
the oven. Once and you're done. You can bake them ahead
of time, wrap them individually in plastic, and freeze them
until you're ready to go. But I wouldn't choose ooey, gooey
brownies or soft, squishy lemon bars. There are plenty of
bar cookies travel better than that. Here's a good one:
Chocolate
Chip Peanut Butter Bars.
Bar cookies usually travel best when individually wrapped
in plastic wrap. You can even make them ahead of time and
freeze them. Wrap them in plastic and then store them in
a heavy zipper-type plastic bag.
REFRIGERATOR COOKIES
There are lots of refrigerator or icebox cookie recipes
about. Refrigerator cookies tend to be tough little devils
if they don't have too much butter in them. Butter-rich
refrigerator cookies tend to be more like shortbread and
somewhat crumbly. With less butter, they keep better and
tend to be harder, crisper cookies. Here's one of our favorite
refrigerator cookies that also travels well: Vanilla
and Chocolate Almond Cookies.
Dennis
Weaver -- having burnt food from Miami, Florida
to Point Barrow, Alaska -- is RTA's road food expert.
He has logged thousands of hours on the roads, trails,
and waterways of America including many of Alaska's
wilderness rivers and has consistently been elected
the trips' "chief cook and bottle washer."
Dennis is currently general manager at 
