Our sukkah is in someone else yard.. need ideas

Gold Member Joined: May 05 2009 Posts: 1204

We are unable to have a sukkah in our apartment, so this year it is in our neighbors backyard... Its about a 2 min walk from our place to theirs. And one flight of stairs.

We are going to be making our night time yontif meals in the sukkah, and I need ideas of how to keep food warm while bringing them back and forth from our place to the sukkah.

I don't want to bother the neighbors by using their house too much, with the electricity and hot plates etc. any ideas how to do this?

Gold Member Joined: Apr 29 2010 Posts: 1026

can you run an extension cord from your house or your neighbors house or from an outside outlet to your sukkah to plug in a hotplate?

Silver Member Joined: Apr 26 2010 Posts: 982 Location: NJ

line a cardboard box with bath towels. Put in your food (in the pans) and fold the towels over it all (or add aditional towels to cover. Should stay piping hot.
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A hotplate in the sukkah sounds dangerous, especially if there will be kids around.

Gold Member Joined: Mar 04 2009 Posts: 2231

I live in an apt quite a few stories up. So I'm used to doing this. The first thing I would recommend is limiting the courses to two. Otherwise it's simply too much shlepping.

I usually eliminate the soup course unless it's the main dish.

And the idea with the cardboard box lined with a towel is a great idea. You can do it in a shopping bag too. Just place container in towel, wrap well, and carry over in a large shopping bag sometimes that's easier than a box because you can hold a few shopping bags in your hand while going down the steps but a box is more precarious. I also take down a bag with plastic utensils - everything we might need, wine, benchers, challah, fish...you name it. I try to remember everything so that I only need to come down once.

Chag Sameach!

Gold Member Joined: May 05 2009 Posts: 1204

Thanks guys! great ideas. when I said a hot plate, I meant I didn't want to leave it in the neighbors house. I didn't mean in the sukkah. I'm way to paranoid for that. I don't even like leaving a light out there!!

Wrapping is defiantly a good idea.

we can't run any cords from our place because there is a little "woodsy" area between our apartment building and our neighbors house.

Im sure it will be much easier with out a soup course, but if anyone has ideas how to do that, let me know! Although, probably just not going to happen, unless its a cold soup, and thats pretty pointless. It's already getting cold where I live....

Gold Member Joined: Jul 11 2008 Posts: 1897

For soup you could try using a thermos, you could make a parve (veg.) soup if you do not want to make thermos fleishig.

a big pot of soup or meat will keep warm wrapped up in towels. Even not wrapped up my chicken soup takes hours to cool! Another idea is sternos. its a tray that is kept hot by a gel flame underneath. You can get these in either disposable or real.

but I think if you wrap everything up in foil and towels it should keep warm.

I'm assuming you have an eruv.

Moderator Joined: Dec 18 2008 Posts: 3611

Also please note that wrapping - aka "hatmanah" - has the halachos of cooking. Great for Yom Tov but assur to wrap (or re-wrap completely) on Shabbos.

There are special pyrex you can buy that are made for keeping casseroles and such piping hot. The glass comes with a cover and a specila nylon zipper bag with handles. I think you may want to invest in two of these and be done!
Kol Hakovod for doing all that with a smile! When we were first married we had TWO flights of stairs and the sukkah was in a tiny allley between two apartment buildings. I totally relate!!!
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"WORRYING is like sitting in a rocking chair... It gives you something to do but does not get you ANYWHERE!"

How about an insulated cooler (keeps things warm too) or insulated picnic bag?

Platinum Member Joined: Aug 12 2007 Posts: 20492

Deli sandwiches and ice cream for dessert Laughing

Gold Member Joined: Dec 24 2009 Posts: 2433

For five years we were on the 3rd floor and the sukkah was all the way downstairs. I was lucky enough to be able to make a small "kitchen" in the basement next to the sukkah. I bought a dorm fridge used on craigslist, ran an electric cord from our apt, and put my plata on top of a metal filing cabinet. I had my urn on top of the fridge, and kept all my plastics in those plastic drawers on wheels. I reheated major things upstairs, brought them down in laundry baskets (or those really heavy boxes from the fruit and vegetable store). Leftovers went right into the fridge in ziploc bags. I used paper goods to eat off of and any real serving dishes that came down went into one of those boxes - we carried the dirty dishes up once at the end of the meal.

All our guests knew what the situation was and offered to carry stuff down before the meal. here are pics from a prior sukkos.

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I'm a post-modern liberal yekke quasi-Chardal Lubavitch baal teshuva trapped inside the body of pale fat Jewish lady with no neck. Very Happy