Once more, this time

with food. Continuing the cycle of interrupting my work week, we begin the holiday of Sukkos (Sukkot to those who speak proper hebrew) tonight. I forget how non-Hebrews refer to it - Tabernacle, I believe. Anyway, this is the booth holiday. Eat all you want, but do it inside a tent with leaves on top. Some people even sleep in theirs, but it's a little nippy for that as far as I'm concerned.

It's more complicated than that, really, but this simplifies life.

We commemorate the tents we lived in in the desert and God's protection of us as we wandered around looking for a 7-11 so we could get slurpees. I put off getting my sukkah up for a while. I was planning on it last Sunday, but it looked threatening and was kind of damp, so I figured I'd put it off for a little bit.

Then, of course, the heavens opened on us in the Northeast all last week, and I couldn't find my wetsuit & flippers to be able to get it together. So come heck or high water (which mercifully ended Saturday morning) I was getting that puppy up this weekend. Happily, I bought a prefab job two years ago - aluminum frame with canvas skin, and I went out Saturday night after Shabbos to get the frame up. With interruptions, I had the whole thing together in about 35 minutes, so I went ahead & put the skin on.

The roof is made of these mats of what I think are bamboo slats, and I figured Sunday would be the day for that. Except the wind kicked up a nor'easter (coulda been southwest, I have no idea) that whipped around like crazy yesterday, and I decided to hold off. It's gotta be on by sundown tonight, so one way or the other I'm getting it on this afternoon.

Lotsa cooking too, including Chana Masala and mango chutney, which I finally got to the consistency I wanted. We're having friends with us for the first days of the holiday, and she's making samosas, so we've got Indian night set. Turkey will go on the grill when I get home shortly - last year's holiday turkey from work - we're getting half a shelf back in the freezer for the first time since last December. It'll get refilled this December with this year's bird. Mashed spuds, cornbread muffins, cranberry sauce, and poof - Thanksgiving in October. Stuffed zucchini too, and lots of other stuff.

I'll bring leftovers on Thursday if there's anything left.