Summer eating

It's been a great summer for growing...vegetables...and fruits.

My neighbors have vegetables gardens and fruit trees growing in their yards.  Boy, are Frankie and I lucky.  Mostly all I have to do is wait for the produce to ripen.  Frequently they bring their bounty right to my front and/or back doors.  It is so wonderful to see a bag full of apples, pears or zucchini squash on my front stoop, or a bowl of berries, plums, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage and other fresh vegetables on my back patio.  I'm so grateful and appreciative.

I'm even allowed to walk right up to my neighbor's vegetable garden and help myself. Frankie and I frequently do that.  And, this year we've discovered how delicious broccoli greens and kale are chopped up as a replacement for lettuce in sandwiches...and they are much better for us. We particularly like that kale has kind of a 'peppery' flavor.  I mean to tell you we have been eating (as the old saying goes) "high off the hog".

Yesterday afternoon, my neighbor brought me a lovely head of red cabbage and some green beans. She informed me the tomatoes are no longer ripening, but that I can help myself to all the green ones I want.  Boy, oh boy. Come on fried green tomatoes with onions.  Yum, yum. Also, I'm going to fix a pan of fried red cabbage, something I've not prepared for quite some time, and I'm not sure Frankie has ever had.

I'm contemplating what to do with the last of all this bounty, but I think since the weather has become more chilly and damp a good hardy vegetable soup might be in order.  Yep, that's the ticket, homemade vegetable soup.

Me: (Shouting) "Frankie!"
Frankie: (Shouting back) "Yo?"
Me: (Still shouting) "Pull out the crock pot!"

High off the hog:

The Phase Finder states this means to be affluent and luxuriously.  Also, it is the best cuts of the meat on a pig.  Although the phrase has been around since at least the 1800's, it did not appear in print until the 20th Century here in America.

The Free Dictionary states: Idiom, slang, In a lavish or extravagant manner..."...lived high on the hog after getting his inheritance.

The Urban Dictionary states:  Living life to the fullest extent.