The Very Best Recipes for Road Trips - No. 289

Are not cooked on a Coleman stove. The Baking in the American South book tour schedule IS HERE!! + Charlie Bird’s Farro Salad and a Lazy Daisy Cake

Photo: Getty Images

EACH JUNE I THINK BACK on a childhood trip my family took to Portland, Oregon, pulling a new pop-up camper trailer behind our green Rambler station wagon.

The destination was my father’s Kiwanis convention, but really this was some ambitious Lewis & Clark attempt to go West and feed U.S. geography to three young daughters.

We watched Old Faithful spew and stood in awe at the towering Tetons. We crossed the Continental Divide. We cried in the Omaha heat when chocolate ice cream melted down our arms before we could eat it.

But it’s what you don’t see in family photos that’s seared in my memory. Like the blustery evening in Kearney, Nebraska, when my mother was certain we would get swept off the map by a Midwestern tornado or the wild band of motorcyclists circling around the campground. Past midnight, she could stand the drama no longer. She moved sleeping children out of the camper and back into the car and instructed my father to drive us down the road to a rest stop where we slept, or more importantly, she slept, in the car until dawn.

It was a long hot summer trip from Nashville to Portland, but we had fun. From left, me, about 9, my sister Ginger, 12, and my sister Susan, 6, at our stop in Fort Laramie, Wyoming.

The greater obstacle of our journey became not my mother’s sleepless nights, but the Rambler’s inability to pull mountain roads without overheating. On the way home, my father drove the roller-coaster roads leaving Salt Lake City at dark, to keep the engine cool. And by the time we reached the long, hot flatlands of Kansas, the Rambler decided to take a little vacation of its own. In 116ºF, the air conditioning stopped. My mother turned to us from the front seat and coolly advised us to strip down to our underpants.

My dad sold that camper the minute we returned to Nashville. For him, camping and road trips were off the bucket list. But for me, the road trip bug had just bit. I’ve been a fan of packing up and heading out ever since. Maybe that’s why I’m taking such an ambitious trip throughout the South this fall to promote my new book, Baking in the American South. I hope to see you along the way! Here’s the complete book tour schedule.

My book tour begins September 4 in Nashville and continues through late November. I’ll be participating in four book festivals, dozens of bookstore signings, special dinners and lectures, and winding my way through the South. Here is the complete tour schedule.

I’ll wager that at some time this summer you’ll be traveling by car to visit friends or relatives, get away for July Fourth, or just to head to the beach.

If so, packing snacks and sandwiches for the trip or making a recipe to take with you and enjoy once you get there makes the journey even sweeter.

It got me thinking about foods and recipes that travel well. We know what foods don’t belong on road trips—anything with whipped cream, right?—but what about ones that do because they actually improve in taste en route?

So I contacted my sister Susan who is a road trip warrior. She’s racked up knowledge on what recipes weather trips the best, whether you’re heading to mountains, lakes, tailgates, or beaches. And according to Susan, perfect road food falls into one of five categories:

Farro salad with pistachios and shaved Parm marinates while you drive. When you get to your destination, toss in the arugula, tomatoes, and radishes.

1. Marinated salads like penne pasta with tomato, or basil, tomato, and fresh mozz, as well as cowboy caviar, corn salad, and other grains that can be stashed in the cooler develop even more intense flavors as you drive. I’m sharing my favorite farro salad today from a New York restaurant called Charlie Bird. Melissa Clark of The New York Times shared the recipe about 10 years ago and wondered at the time if farro might be the new couscous. What makes it distinctive is you cook the farro in apple cider, or if not in season, an unfiltered apple juice with aromatics like bay leaves. And then you toss with Parmesan and pistachios, fold in arugula, radishes, and really make the salad your own. I use Trader Joe’s quick-cooking farro, so it cooks in just 15 to 20 minutes.

2. Unusual snacks like perennial favorite Dayna’s Firecrackers, for snacking and gift-giving when you get to your destination. Or, pecan halves roasted slowly in butter and salt. Popcorn tossed with nutritional yeast. Or cold purple grapes and slices of gorgonzola spread onto thin crackers.

3. Big sandwiches that can be assembled, sliced, and wrapped for picnics en route. We all know the beauty of tomato and mozz with pesto on a French loaf, but what about David Lebovitz’s Pan Bagnat…the sassy tuna sandwich of southern France? Susan also recommends grilled flank steak, sliced thinly onto a large loaf with avocado, greens, pickled onions, and a little garlicky mayo.

Lazy Daisy Cake is a good summer traveling cake.

4. For dessert, choose cakes that can travel still in the pan like blondies, Coca-Cola Cake, prune cake, carrot cake, and Lazy Daisy Cake, which I share today. Also, Bundt cakes are good travelers and get even better with sitting.

5. And definitely cookies. Oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip, peanut butter. Whatever is your house favorite. Pack them in tins or Ziplocs. Bake them a little smaller than usual and freeze them in advance of your trip.

What recipes do you pack for a road trip or summer destination?

Here in Nashville, my garden is already coming in! This may be a record year with all the rain and our warm temps. And it’s definitely a pesto summer. Did you miss the pesto recipe I sent to paid subscribers last week? I’ve got some surprises planned for paid subscribers this summer, especially what to do with all the peaches and tomatoes, plus a sneak-peek recipe from my new book. So, if you are thinking of becoming a paid subscriber and supporting my work, now is the perfect time!

Have a great week, on the road or at home.

- xo, Anne

THE RECIPES:

Charlie Bird’s Farro Salad

Farro is an ancient whole wheat grain with a nice chewy texture and nutty flavor, and its cooking time depends on the type of farro you are using. I buy the quick-cooking or pearled farro at Trader Joe’s to save time cooking. Farro has been grown for centuries in the mountains of Tuscany, Umbria and the Abruzzi, as it tolerates poor soil, and it feeds people well. The ancient Romans built an empire while eating farro porridge daily. I think I prefer farro salad. Perfect road trip food! I’ve adapted this recipe from one printed in The New York Times.

Makes about 6 servings

• 1 cup pearled or quick-cooking farro (see Note)

• 2 cups water

• 1 cup apple cider or unfiltered apple juice

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

• 2 bay leaves

• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 1/2 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

• 1/2 cup unsalted toasted pistachios, chopped

• 2 cups arugula

• 1 cup parsley and/or basil leaves, torn

• 1/2 to 1 cup mint leaves

• 3/4 cup halved grape tomatoes

• 1/3 cup thinly sliced radishes

1. Place the farro, water, apple juice, salt, and bay leaves in a medium saucepan, and bring to a rolling simmer. Let cook uncovered until the farro is tender and the liquid evaporates, about 18 minutes. Let farro cool, then discard the bay leaves.

2. In a salad bowl, or a plastic bowl for traveling, whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice, with a pinch of salt, if desired. Stir in the cooled farro, Parmesan, and pistachios. (If you want to bring along the rest of the ingredients separately - arugula, herbs, tomatoes, and radishes, prep them and package. Fold into the farro just before serving.) Or, to ease the process, fold in the arugula, herbs, tomatoes, and radishes before traveling.

Note: Quick-cooking or pearled farro will cook in 15 to 20 minutes, whereas unpearled farro takes longer to cook, about 30 minutes. If all the liquid evaporates before the farro is done, add a little more water.

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Lazy Daisy Cake

This is one of America's most-beloved sheet cakes, with the classic broiled topping of coconut, brown sugar, and cream. It seems like a real road trip cake to me because it’s retro and loved by all ages. It may be adored because of its catchy name, popular since the 1930s. Did you know the phrase "lazy daisy" was mentioned in turn-of-the-century poetry - "there's something in the lazy, daisy atmosphere" - to describe the fresh, carefree feel of June? Here’s the recipe, from my book, American Cake:

Makes 12 to 16 servings

• Cake:

• Butter or shortening and flour for prepping the pan

• 1/ 2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 2 cups granulated sugar

• 3 large eggs

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup buttermilk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Topping:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

• 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

• 1/3 cup heavy cream

• 1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded sweetened coconut

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease and flour a 13- by 9-inch baking pan and set it aside.

2. Place the soft butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Blend on medium speed with an electric mixer until the mixture is creamy, 2 minutes. Add the eggs, and blend on medium until the batter is smooth and light, 2 minutes more.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the batter along with the buttermilk and vanilla, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Blend on low until everything is incorporated, then increase the mixer speed to medium and blend to lighten the batter, 30 seconds more. Turn the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top. Place the pan in the oven.

4. Bake the cake until the top springs back when lightly pressed and it is golden brown, 28 to 32 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven. Turn the oven broiler on, and carefully position a broiler rack about 4 to 5 inches away from the broiler.

5. For the topping, place the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat to melt, 1 minute. Stir in the brown sugar and cream and let mixture come to a boil and boil for 2 minutes, or until it thickens slightly. Take the pan off the heat. Stir in coconut, vanilla, and salt. Pour the topping over the top of the warm cake, spreading it out to reach the edges. Place the cake in the oven, leaving the door ajar or the oven light on so you can watch the broiling so it will not overcook. Let the topping broil until it bubbles up and the coconut caramelizes, from 30 seconds to 1 minute, depending on your broiler.

6. Remove the pan from the oven, let it rest 15 minutes, then serve or pack for traveling.