The Best Ways to Transport Food this Holiday Season

If you are tasked with the responsibility of bringing delicious homemade food to a party or office potluck this holiday season, you might be stuck with the problem of how to transport it without making a monumental mess in your car. Safely transporting food can come down to what you choose to transport it in. For example, a big bowl of punch loosely covered in plastic wrap sitting on your dashboard won’t cut it, nor will piping hot servings of casserole on less than sturdy paper plates.

Transporting Sauces, Dips, and Casseroles

Keep items like dips in their own sealed containers. Mason jars are great for smaller servings or if you plan on bringing an array of sauces, dips, or salsas. For hot dishes like main entrees, soups, and casseroles, use glass containers that double as an oven and microwave-safe containers for reheating. Again, use a sturdy lid instead of plastic wrap or aluminum foil to safeguard against accidents and spills. Glass or Pyrex containers are the best choices for sturdiness and easy reheating.

Carrying Cookies, Cakes, and Other Desserts

For baked goods and pastries, pick a shallow container and layer parchment paper between goods to keep them separate. For cakes and cupcakes, it might be an excellent idea to buy containers specifically designed to carry such baked goods. This can be a particularly good option if you plan on transporting multiple cakes and cupcakes for parties, office potlucks, and other holiday or birthday events.

What else should you remember when transporting food this holiday season? Take a look below for some more tips:

• Use containers for transportation that double as a serving dish to cut back on the tools you have to keep track of and clean.
• Choose recipes strategically. If you are traveling a few blocks, transporting a hot dish in a sturdy container will work, but if you are traveling further, consider this method for proper food safety: Completely prepare food the day before, let it cool down completely, cover and refrigerate properly overnight, and pack it properly for your destination. This will help ensure food safety.
• Secure a laundry basket using bungee cords in your back seat or trunk. Layer a towel on the bottom to both soak up potential spills and to insulate your food. You can also pack in all the necessary tools and keep everything in one place.
• Bring all of your own supplies. Your party host will likely be running around caring for guests and their own meal and party preparation. Short of plates and utensils, bring your own serving tools, oven mitts, ladle, pie cutter, and whatever essential tools you might need.

For recipes to help inspire your holiday season, explore some of the ideas below:

• Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches
• Cranberry-Almond Rum Balls
• Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms
• Cranberry Orange Cheese Ball
• White Chocolate Dipped Ginger Cookies

Keep the car free of spills and your passengers safe this holiday season. For more articles ensuring the safety and comfort of your family throughout the year, visit Kuehn Motors today.

Child Seats: Transporting Your Family Safely

With ever-changing car seat safety updates and growing kids, it can be hard to keep up with the best practices for safely transporting your family. There are certain facts and habits that can help your child arrive at their destination in comfort and security. Take a look below for our best ideas on traveling safely with your family.

Know the proper placement for a car seat

The safest place for a car seat is in the center of the backseat. Kids situated here in the center are less likely to be injured than those near windows. For families that have multiple car seats, it’s best to put one car seat in the center and the other next to it.

Know the proper time to update their car seat

Infants require a rear-facing car seat. A convertible seat with longer shells and slightly high rear-facing weight capacities will work well for transitioning kids from a rear-facing to a front-facing car seat. Depending on a child’s weight, the appropriate time to switch your child to a front-facing car seat is around age two. Recent studies have shown, however, that children under the age of 2 are nearly five times as likely to become seriously or even fatally-injured when in a front-facing seat.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends a rear-facing car seat, as it does a superior job of supporting a small child’s head and underdeveloped neck and spine. Rear-facing seats distribute the force of a collision over the entire body. Once your child reaches certain weight and height limits, a booster seat will be the best choice for transitioning out of car seats. Just ensure that you still use a harness and the proper safety restrictions. And remember that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommends that children ride in the back of a car until age thirteen.

Use car seat equipment appropriately

If your car employs a LATCH system (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children), use it to benefit the safety and security of your child. The LATCH system makes installation easier, tighter-fitting, and safer than it would be otherwise. Using the top tether of the car seat will especially limit the motion of the car seat and reduce your child’s risk of injury.

Clothing makes a difference. In the colder months, it’s important to understand the risk of putting your child into a car seat with a full jacket and outdoor winter clothing. Increasing the distance from your child’s body to the harness straps can make the safety and security of a car seat less effective.

For a safe journey, pick a car seat and a vehicle that will ensure best in security and safety for your family. To find the best car for your family, visit Kuehn Motors today.

Narrowing Down Your Options: Picking a Vehicle

Our last two blogs have focused on the best vehicles for college students and families. These two blogs talked about finding a car to fit your needs and budget. But really, when you are looking for a family vehicle, those factors still leave you with a lot of options. In this installment of our blog, we will spotlight a few options. Check out our guide below to help you search for the best vehicle for your family:

Best Sedan: Honda Accord

For a vehicle that is compact and delivers on both storage space and passenger comfort, the Honda Accord is a stellar steal! Interior highlights include dual-zone automatic climate control, Bluetooth connectivity, telescoping steering wheel, heated leather seats, and more. This car is a safe vehicle for families with features that include front seat side-impact airbags, antilock brakes, a backup camera, electronic stability system with traction control, and available LaneWatch system to show two lanes of adjacent traffic.

Best Minivan: Toyota Sienna

The best minivan on the market, the Toyota Sienna offers excellent seating capacity to fit the whole family plus all their sports gear, band instruments, bags, groceries, carpool group, and more. With traction control, brake assist, electronic stability, dual front impact airbags, and anti-whiplash front head restraints, the Toyota Sienna provides maximum safety and security for you and your cargo.

Best for Large Families and Teams: Buick Enclave

For a modern and mid-sized luxury vehicle, pick the Buick Enclave. This vehicle delivers in spaciousness, sophistication, and plenty of seating for your family. With all-wheel drive, a touch-screen display and USB port, emergency communication system, heated seats, interior air filtration, and SiriusXM Satellite Radio, this SUV delivers on technology, sophistication, and comfort.

Best Car for Your Teen Driver: Ford Fusion SE Sedan

Safe and teeming with efficiency, the Ford Fusion SE Sedan is a great pick your student driver. This car is easy to steer and maneuver and safe to drive. With high consumer ratings, this vehicle is the perfect fit for your new driver. It also makes for a great pick to send your responsible student off to college!

The search for a car that best suits the needs of your family can be a time-intensive and stressful process. Whether you need plenty of cargo space or want high-tech features to monitor teen drivers, use this guide to search the market for your dream car. Look to Kuehn Motors as another resource in your car search endeavors. For hours and to contact us directly at kuehnmotors.com.

Finding the Right Car to Fit Your Family

Shopping for and picking out a new car seems like fun, that is, up until the moment you need to make a commitment. With so many options out there, it can seem stressful finding the right car for you and your family. Your choice will likely stay with you for at least a few years, so it is a big decision. With a little research and planning, this task will not seem as daunting. Consider the following:

Assess Your Needs

This is very important to your overall decision.  Begin by considering the features you and your family truly need to narrow down your search:

●      How many passengers do you need to carry?

●      Are you going to be driving on the ice and snow?

●      Where will you be parking?

●      How much will it be driven?

●      Will you be pulling any trailers, campers, or other heavy equipment?

Decide on a Budget

Creating a budget is one of the most important aspects of buying a car. This involves reviewing all your monthly expenses to decide on the maximum amount you are willing to spend.  When you look at a car's price tag, remember to factor in the overall costs of the car. Consider insurance, upkeep, gas mileage and maintenance as well as the purchase price.

New or Used?

This decision might seem like it is solely based on your budget, but used cars have benefits, too. Brand new cars are a good investment much of the time, but they don't have the information and reviews available that used models have. If you do decide to purchase a car that has recently been released, wait a few months to check the reviews from owners.

Fuel Efficiency

Think about your daily routine. Do you travel on highways or city streets more often? Are you making long trips or short ones?  How far or often you regularly drive is a big factor in choosing a car. Larger models are good for hauling cargo (and more people at one time) but do not have the fuel efficiency of a smaller model. Then again, if you have a big family, you might need a second smaller car to accommodate your family's lifestyle. It all depends on your needs.

Before making a choice, test out a few different cars. Again, it is an exciting process, and you don't want to get wrapped up in one model.  After all, these are all important aspects of your decision.

While you are shopping for your new car, be sure to stop by Kuehn Motors. Our friendly and helpful staff will be more than happy to help you on your journey.