Sukkot is my new favorite holiday. During this week-long Jewish harvest holiday we built a sukkah in our backyard in Brooklyn and invited friends over to eat in it with us nearly every night. We decorated the sukkah with gords and pumpkins and dried corn. According to tradition, the sukkah had 3 walls and a “see-through” roof, which we made out of burlap.

Wiki says: The sukkah is reminiscent of the type of fragile dwellings in which the ancient Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt. Throughout the holiday the sukkah becomes the living area of the house, and all meals are eaten in it.

We had different autumn inspired menu each night and friends brought things to share as well. We had quinoa, squash, roasted sweet potatoes, pie, butternut soup, pumpkin bread and my favorite- Andrea’s clever dish, Succotash, a lovely veggie stew type medley served in a whole bell pepper.

Happy Fall!

All photos by Vanessa Bahmani.

*Erin Gleeson is a food photographer based in New York City. She enjoys shooting cookbooks and teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her photos have been published in The New York Times and Gourmet magazine (RIP).