Aby-a-Day – 7 Maj 2020: Ribs for their pleasure (Thursday Things)

Whenever we have spare ribs, we lock the cats out of the room. As a sort of reward, we let them chew the meat scraps and cartilage off of the bones. It’s very popular with the feline set.

Of course Alfred is the first one to grab some bones, with Lorelai close behind.

Freddy especially loves the cartilage bits.

Rory may be the smallest cat in our family, but she’s feisty. She gets her share of the bones.

But possibly the most enthusiastic bone-eater is Izaak.

Look at him go! All that chicken neck practice is clearly paying off.

I should have made a video. He’s making little growling noises as he gnaws.

Angel even tries to join in the rib-gnawing fun.

It’s kind of hard, though, since she only has two teeth left.

So we gave her a corn cob instead.

She was happy with that.

Dashiell wanted to try corn, too. We may have another corn-eater in the house.

Aby-a-Day – 16 Mars: Bear necessities (Swedish Saturday)

In Sweden, we have a thing called REKO-Ring. REKO means “Real Consumption” (Konsumtion in Swedish) and is a way to shop for locally produced food, without intermediaries. Consumers and producers merge and start a REKO ring where locally produced products are sold directly from producer to consumer. In Skövde, our local REKO-Ring has a Facebook page where the producers post what they have available, and then people who want to buy something comment on the post saying what they want to get. Then, on alternate Wednesdays, we meet in a parking lot at a hockey arena two stops on the bus line from our house.

Well, just as I despairing of finding a really great birthday present for Björn, I happened to check the REKO-Ring Skövde Facebook page. And I found a post from Lilla Spännefalla, and they had all kinds of game for sale. Including bear meat from Jämtland in the north of Sweden.

I ordered a “Bear Box” and got steaks, ground bear meat, and chunks.
I have only had bear a couple of times, and it is delicious. The first time was in 2000, when I found it for sale in an Asian grocery store in Boston. I then had it again when we canned bear meat for sale in the duty-free on the ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki. Then I got to eat it again when we went to a medieval restaurant in Taillinn. But the thing is…The name Björn is the same as the Swedish word for bear. So when I found bear meat available for sale just before Björn’s birthday, I knew I had the perfect gift.

Bear meat is delicious. You have to make sure all the fat is removed, because it can add a slightly rancid flavour to the meat. The basic rule of thumb is, “Season like beef, cook like pork.” This is because like pigs, bears and raccoons are omnivores, and their meat can cause Trichinosis if it is not cooked well.

So, sorry guys…you don’t get to try it raw.

Despite not getting to try it raw, the bear meat attracted quite a crowd.

Lorelai, of course, had to get on Björn’s shoulder to supervise.

Izaak made sure Björn cooked it thoroughly.

And he did.

Served with plain potato wedges and mushrooms, it was a delicious birthday dinner…

…which some people in the house were eager to sample.

Zak was the first to taste bear meat whilst the plates were still on the coffee table.

Everyone else got their tastes in the kitchen. Rory LOVED it.

Jacoby tried to steal her piece, but she managed to keep it for herself. But don’t worry, Jake got a couple of pieces of the bear meat.

Alfred took his piece so quickly…

…I couldn’t even capture it with my camera. Fast Freddy!

Angel took her sample gingerly…

…and ran away from all the other cats to eat it in peace.

It took her a little longer to finish it, because of her three teeth, so she wanted to eat it someplace safe.

I guess we can add bear meat to the things Abyssinians (and Singapuras) will eat.

Aby-a-Day – 24 Februari: “Some chicken, some neck!” (Cinema Sunday)

Izaak loves his chicken necks.

I mean, he really loves them. He only gets one a day, though, because too many raw bones can cause constipation…but if he could have it his way, he’d eat five or six a day.

I generally feed the cats at noon and midnight, and Zak gets his neck around 8pm. He knows this, so starting around 6pm, every time I get up, he tries to lead me into the kitchen. If I am in the kitchen, he leaps up to the counter next to the refrigerator and yells for his neck.

Of course, still photos cannot express how funny he is when he is doing this…so I made a video of a typical trip to the kitchen chez Hellqvist.

Aby-a-Day – 16 Februari: Alla hjärtans dag (Very Aby Holidays)

Just in time for Valentine’s day, Björn found a package of chicken hearts in the “Ät Snart” (past date meats) bin at our loval ICA. He thought the cats might like them…

…Gee. Raw meat. What’s not to like? We served them to the LunaTicks on Valentine’s Day (of course). So I rinsed the hearts off…

…And served them to our feline family.

Angel, Alfred and Izaak, not too surprisingly as they are our biggest raw food eaters.

Still, Jacoby and Lorelai joined in to eat some hearts.

Angel gets nervous eating close to the other cats (probably something to do with someone stealing her food in her foster home), so she took her heart a little ways away to eat it.

Not that anyone was looking at her specific heart. There was enough for everyone.

I think it’s safe to say that everyone enjoyed their Valentine’s Day hearts.

Aby-a-Day – 31 December: Happy New Year’s! (Hipstamatic Monday)

For the past three years, Björn and I have hosted the New Year’s party for our friends. This year, due to a number of random circumstances (ours and our friends), we ended up being a party of seven – us and the cats.

Of course, we didn’t know it was going to be just us when we were preparing everything in the run-up to Jul and New Year’s, so I managed to find the largest turkey I could to cook for the party.

At 8.5kg (almost 19lbs!) it’s the largest turkey I have been able to find since I moved to Sweden.

Oh, how I have missed the monster, American super-sized turkeys! Okay, so we’ll have lots of leftovers.

I think we’re going to have lots of help finishing those leftovers, too.

Combined, Alfred, Lorelai and Zak weigh 10.6kg…so the turkey weighs more than any two of them put together.

The size difference didn’t stop them from investigating its edibility.

Zak was especially interested in the big bird.

Rory, without the boys flanking her, did seem a little more intimidated by it.

She is our smallest cat. The last time I weighed them all, she clocked in at 2.6kg.

I think she thought it wasn’t really dead!

She tentatively approached the bird. I’m sure she’ll be a lot less tentative once it comes out of the oven!

I love the randomness of Hipstamatic…

Even though we ended up not having any guests, everyone got dressed up. The boys all wore their leather bow ties.

Rory wore a festive red bow.

Freddy can’t ever keep his tie on straight.

Angel wore her sparkly sequin collar I got ages ago at a Seacoast show. Next year, I want to see if Arja can make the girls feminine festive collars, perhaps with flowers instead of bows.

Regardless, when the turkey came out of the oven it. Was. AWESOME.

Easily the best turkey I have ever cooked. And, ironically, I have been cooking them since 1999.

But yeah, in 20 years of cooking turkeys, this was one of my best.

Someone else thought so, too.

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Of course, his opinion is slightly biased…he's never had a whole cooked turkey before in his life.

Izaak tried so hard to eat off that big turkey…but it was too hot.

Since it was too hot to eat, Zak tried smacking it with his paw instead.

It was still too hot…but it wasn’t too hot when I put it on a tray for everyone to share.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their bits of turkey.

As you could probably tell by the general swarming going on.

Björn and I also did some Incredibooth selfies…enjoy!

Aby-a-Day – 25 November: Dances with cats (Cinema Sunday)

It’s always a huge event in our house when I cut up meat.

It’s one of the best ways to get all five of them together.

They are so fascinated by it…and of course, hopeful for a scrap or two.

It’s a bit like feeding a tank of piranhas, to be honest.

Cats – at least Abys and Singas – swarm.

Alfred is at his most athletic when there’s raw meat involved.

But still photos cannot capture the mayhem properly…so here is a little movie Björn made of the Famous Hellqvist Dancing Cats. Click the image to view it in Flickr.

Aby-a-Day – 24 November: “Waiting patiently for the fattest bone is a cat’s lifestyle.”

On Thursday, I posted about our early Thanksgiving goose. But I saved the best part for today…and of course, the best part of any bird is the neck! Usually, I bake it alongside the bird and eat it myself as a snack. But since Izaak loves his chicken necks so much, I decided to let him have the goose neck.

I know these photos are blurry, but look how excited he is!

Gimme!

The neck was nearly as long as he is!

Lorelai and Alfred were very interested in the neck, too.

Rory was willing to dance for it!

It’s hard to see in the photos, but Zak is really pulling on the bone! He’s like a little terrier.

He’s growling, too.

The growling got louder when Freddy couldn’t stand it any more and hopped up on the counter to get closer to the meat.

You have to admire Freddy’s chutzpah, though…despite the growling from the little Singa, he still tried to take the neck.

Finally, I cut off a small piece of the neck and gave it to Zak.

I always give him his neck in the house, so he can eat them without being bothered by the others…and also so it doesn’t get dragged all over the house.

However, it turned out that, excited as Zak was about the prospect of the neck…he doesn’t like goose necks. So, when I opened the house to let him out, Rory stole the neck…

…and proceeded to eat it in the living room.

So much for not having raw meat dragged all over the house, eh?

Aby-a-Day- 22 November: Happy Thanksgiving, or, as we call it in Sweden, “Thursday”

Today is Thanksgiving back in the States, but we actually had our “Thanksgiving” dinner last Thursday.

The reason for this is more utilitarian than anything else. Since last year, I have wanted to cook a goose. In Sweden, geese are traditionally cooked for St. Martin’s Day, celebrated on 10 November. I didn’t know this last year when I first saw whole geese in the shops last year…I wanted to get one for Christmas, but by the time I was ready to buy one, they were nowhere to be found! Because they are only available in early November.

This year, I was on full alert for geese, checking all the stores for geese. And I found them at two stores. I snagged a better deal than the above for the one we had for our early Thanksgiving, but Björn (who works at the same mall that the supermarket I took that photo at is in) got a second one we froze for a third of the price. But for the first one, I wanted to cook it fresh, not frozen, and the use-by date was the 15th…so, we decided to have Thanksgiving a week early.

I have cooked whole chickens, turkeys, pheasants and ducks, but never a goose. I followed my usual Chinese-style, boiling-water-to-tighten-the-skin trick, and I even found a kick-ass Asian-style roast goose recipe.

The thing to keep in mind, here, is that the goose weighed 5kg. Of our five cats, the one who weighs the closest to that is Alfred, who, the last time I weighed them all, came in at 4.7kg. Yep, that’s right…Freddy officially weighs more than Jacoby!

None of the cats was the least bit intimidated by food that weighed more than they did.

Freddy even tried to take a bite!

Lorelai is our smallest cat – smaller even than Izaak! She only weighed 2.4kg the last time I weighed them. She was very impressed with the goose.

Another trick I use when cooking birds is to start cooking it breast down (upside-down from the way people usually roast a turkey). This way, the juices run DOWN into the breast and keeps it moist. Then for the last hour, the bird is flipped over so the breast can brown. Goose cooks a lot faster than turkey, though, which I was not expecting. I’ll know better next time.

Zak was very interested in the cooked goose.

So was Jake.

Cheeky bugger actually licked it!

I don’t cook my birds with stuffing per se, but I do stuff the inside cavity with ginger, garlic, scallions, and, for this particular recipe, orange wedges. It adds flavour to the meat from the inside. I also boil them down with the carcass when I make stock, which makes for very tasty soups.

The meat inside is so much richer and more flavourful than turkey…but overall, it seems there is less edible meat per kilo than a similar-sized turkey. All in all, an interesting exercise. I can’t wait to try it again!

Aby-a-Day – 9 August: Jacoby is such a ham (Thursday Things)

Despite not feeling well, Jacoby is still on the constant lookout for anything edible.

The other night we made some pasta sauce using some short-dated roasted ham bits in it. We rinsed out the bag it came packaged in and set it on the draining board to dry out for recycling…the same as we do for any plastic meat packaging.

And, usually, that’s not a problem. While Jake does chew on plastic shopping bags, the bags meat comes sealed in is apparently not the right consistency for eating. He’s never bothered that plastic before.

But this particular evening…

…Jake was after something other than plastic.

Evidently, he just really thought there was some meat left in the bag, and he went for it.

And then he couldn’t seem to shake the packet off his face.

But he didn’t panic or freak out or anything. He just sat there. Jake seemed resigned to wearing ham-scented plastic on his head for the rest of his life.

Alfred and Lorelai seemed quite concerned. Either that, or they wanted to make sure that Jake wasn’t actually eating any ham…

…whichever it was, Freddy jumped up to see what he could do.

I don’t think you’re helping there, Fred. I finally helped Jake shake off his plastic porcine mask. What I love about Jake is how when something like this happens, he never panics. He remains dead calm. Like that time he got stuck in a plastic shopping bag, he just waits…he knows he’ll either get out of it himself, or a human will come along and help him. No worries.

Aby-a-Day – 5 August: MINE (Singapura Sunday)

Recently our nearby pet store started carrying Vaisto Mush frozen chicken necks. This is the same brand that makes the raw balls I feed them, so I thought I would get them to see if they liked them. At the very least, I thought, Alfred will eat them because he loves to chew on bones.

Well, I wasn’t wrong. Freddy does like them. But I was surprised that Izaak really loved them.

This is the very first time I gave Zak a chicken neck. Not only did he attack it, but he guarded it, growling and snarling as he ate it.

Despite being the smallest cat in our household (and this was right after he came to live with us), he managed to keep Jacoby, Lorelai and Freddy at bay. Angel didn’t even try.

Here’s a video of that first encounter with a chicken neck. I hope you can hear the growling!

Zak is now addicted to these things. Everytime I go near the refrigerator, he yells at me to open the door and give him a neck! I try to limit them, because too many bones can cause constipation. But it’s hard not to give him one when he is so insistent.

And he is so funny to watch! Even if no cat is around, he growls, snarls and hisses.

…But if anyone gets too close…

Look at Freddy! He doesn’t even try to take it from Zak! He knows from past encounters, he can’t win.

The best he can do is hope for leftovers. Even though he weighs more than double what Zak does (4kg to Zak’s 1.8kg), he just won’t go there.

Here’s a video I made this afternoon showing the stand off. Towards the beginning, Zak hisses with his mouth full of neck. It’s pretty funny to hear!

Aby-a-Day – 1 February: I chew, chew, chews you

Alfred likes to chew things.

He will chew plastic, like Jacoby, but unlike Jake, Freddy’s chewing is more…forceful.

Freddy chews not just to get inside a plastic bag (although, if it has food in it, Freddy will chew it), but he also chews for the sake of chewing.

He chews like dogs do. Nom…nom…nom…

I’ve started giving him bones. I mean, real, serious, dog-bone bones.

We had a smoked lamb leg after New Year’s. When we got all the meat off the bone, we let the cats pick the remainder of the meat off the bone.

It was basically the “Freddy and whoever can stand to fight him for it” show.

Freddy is pretty possessive of his bones.

Here’s a video of Freddy and Jake chewing on the lamb leg bone (click image for video).

Be sure you have the volume up to hear Freddy’s possessive growling (again, click image for video).

It’s gotten to the point where I am buying Freddy dog chew sticks to gnaw on.

And what’s worse is, he actually chews on them.

This is my first Aby with an oral fixation. I hope that, at least, it means he’s going to have awesome teeth.

Here’s a video of Freddy chewing on a meat-covered rawhide stick I got him from an awesome pet store in Örebro (click image for video). There’s no growling in this one, mainly because nobody else wanted to share it!

Aby-a-Day – 2 June: Meat-Seeking Missile

Yesterday was my birthday, so I went to Davis Square to get a pedicure. Afterwards, I was hungry, so I stopped by Redbones to have what will most likely be my last barbecue from them in a while.

When I called to place my order, I mentioned that I was moving to Sweden, and the girl I spoke with wrote this on my bag! I know…awwwww…

I will miss this place.

When I got home, I set the bag with my takeaway in it down and made the fatal mistake of leaving it unattended. And just look what happened!

Jacoby chewed through the plastic bag, the paper bag, AND the cardboard takeout box…and stole a rib and ATE it!

You can see how guilty and remorseful he felt about it, too.

He had already had his evening meal, too!

But seriously, I want you all to take another look at the hole he made. I mean, this was not a random accidental opening. He focused on one corner and attacked with surgical precision. Jake knew exactly what he was doing and how to do it.

He seems a bit sad that there is no meat left on the bone. He really stripped off every last bit…and then, while I was eating my share of the meal, he actually had the nerve to ask me to give him more! I hope Björn is ready for this rivningskula.

Aby-a-Day – 7 March: Makin’ Bacon (Hipstamatic Monday)

I decided to make some more garlic-maple baked bacon…and of course I had help.

After trimming off all the fat I could, I marinated the bacon in the pureed garlic and maple syrup for two days. Then I spread it out on the baking pan.

Jacoby really wanted to try some.

I will share raw meat with him (and Angel) if it’s beef or lamb, but there is no way he’s eating raw bacon.

This is him sulking after I told him he couldn’t have any.

Undaunted, he made another attempt.

I would have thought that the garlic and maple syrup would act as a deterrent…but apparently Abys don’t mind it.

Aby-a-Day – 6 March: “It is in their eyes that magic resides” (Selfie Sunday)

Silly me, thinking I could eat a meal in peace.

I was sitting with Björn, trying to eat lamb and rice.

With Jacoby in the same room.

As if I could eat in peace with a glowing-eyed piranha trying to steal the food from my fork.

He’s still not as bad as Angel, though…

Aby-a-Day – 25 February: Just TRY to eat meat around Angel…

I was eating some beef and potatoes while FaceTiming with Björn.

I was trying to eat it in the living room.

I should have known better.

This is what happens.

Angel always swoops in from the back of the sofa and tries to steal my food right off the fork

Missed it that time…

Really Angel? Really?

Next bite, she’s right back at it, grabby Aby hands in action.

She’s really relentless.

Jacoby and Tessie wanted some, too, and they were sitting in front of me watching hopefully.

Not Angel, though.

For a cat who’s as skittish in so many situations as she is…it’s really amazing how aggressive a beggar and food snatcher she is.

Since my hands were full, I tried to push her away with my head.

That did not work.

She came right back!

She even went so far as to try to fake me out. Here, she tried to make me think she’d given up.

Nope! Abys never give up when there’s food involved!

Aby-a-Day – 11 January: Venison for New Year’s (Miniature Monday)

On New Year’s Eve, Björn and I hosted a dinner party with our friends Karin, Roger and Martin.

Mini-Jacoby, as you saw last week, was also there.

He wasn’t exactly invited…he came for the venison and stayed for the booze.

We had a glorious side of venison for dinner.

Our friend Martin hunts, and he brought the meat as his contribution to the collaborative meal.

Not only that…

…he cooked it for us, too! And it was wonderful.

Mini-Jake was fascinated by all the food, as you can see.

It was a real, grown-up dinner party, too. Everyone dressed up and everything. It was one of the best New Years Eve parties I’ve ever been to.

And, finally, after so many years of calling each other on New Year’s Eve – usually at the wrong time, because we’d messed up the time difference – Björn and I were finally in the same room at midnight! And we finally got our New Year’s kiss.

Aby-a-Day – December 6: This is MY food! (Selfie Sunday)

Today’s photos come courtesy of Bjorn, who watched me trying to eat some Thanksgiving pheasant over Facetime.

“Trying” being the operative word here.

Hey, you try eating while being tag-teamed by two voracious Abys!

Jacoby is very impatient. He’ll take the meat right off your plate if you aren’t careful!

Angel is a little better; she waits up by my shoulder for me to share. But she has been known to try to grab it right off my fork!

Aby-a-Day – November 30: Dive right in (Minature Monday)

My Thanksgiving pheasant turned out so well…and was so small…that I decided to cook an actual turkey on Thanksgiving Saturday.

I mean, pheasants are tasty and all, but as it happens…I really missed the leftovers (Note to self re: living in Sweden).

While I was able to keep the real Jacoby away from the turkey, I wasn’t so fortunate when it came to MiniJake.

He was all over my turkey! I’m pretty sure he drooled on it, too (ewwwww)!

He was ready to eat any part of the turkey…

…even the wings!

But of course, his most favoured part was…

…the great white expanse of the breast meat!

Nom nom nom…

Aby-a-Day – November 26: The bird is the word

This year for Thanksgiving, I wanted to try something different, so I cooked a Pheasant instead of the usual Turkey.

Over the years, I have developed a marvelous and awesome technique for cooking birds of various species. It involves several secrets. The first secret is: Pour boiling water over the bird’s skin. It tightens it up and seals the meat. And do it at least a night before you cook the bird. My second secret is: Even if you aren’t planning to eat it, season the skin. The flavour leaks into the meat. These two I learned from a Chinese duck recipe.

The third secret is to stuff the bird with onions and garlic cloves. This also flavours the meat – it makes a huge difference! The fourth secret is, start the oven at 500°F (260°C) and then put the bird in and immediately lower it to 325°F (163°C) for the actual baking. It sears the skin. And when you put the the bird into the oven, start out with the breast down, not up (natural, as if the bird was alive posture as opposed to the typical “Thanksgiving turkey” position). The juices will drip down into the breast meat while cooking instead of out into the pan. Trust me…yes, it can be a huge pain to flip the damn bird over halfway through, but it’s worth it.

And the fifth secret is…Bacon!!! While the bird is cooking breast down, trim the fat off some good bacon, marinate it in maple syrup and garlic (plus any spices you’re in the mood for) and let it sit at room temperature (I recommend the microwave, aka the “cat proof food safe”).

Of course, one person can do this all alone…but it’s always nice to have some help.

Jacoby is very helpful!

I think he’s trying to grab a fork for me here…

Jake carefully examined the pheasant at the halfway point.

He also supervised me while I applied the bacon.

Once all the bacon was placed over the breast, the bird went back into the oven.

Jake was so excited!

He sat down next to the oven to wait and enjoy the wonderful smells.

“Is it ready yet??”

I think he started to get a little impatient.

Here’s the pheasant about halfway through the breast-up cooking. I’m also baking the neck with it…this is an old and long-standing tradition of mine. When I was a kid, my mom would always cook the turkey neck and that would be my Thanksgiving preview snack. I always look forward to the neck when I cook a bird.

“I love you, food-to-be.”

I’m not sure what Jake’s more annoyed at: Tessie photobombing him, or Tessie stealing his bit of the pheasant neck!

And here is the finished bird! The bacon was absolutely amazing – this was the first time I’d tried this – and the pheasant turned out wonderfully. This method will also work on a turkey or a chicken, and it should work on a duck…but bacon on a duck may be a little too much fat.

I was documenting my Thanksgiving meal for Björn because we couldn’t celebrate together this year…and it occurred to me that you might want to try my methods out with your Abys! Happy holidays!