These days I´ve been active on the kitchen front and I always find it up-lifting. The thing with me is that I love cooking, but I´m also very lazy. So I have to trick myself into doing it for a higher purpose, the way I sometimes manage tricking myself into working out. This being said, there´s nothing better than enjoying a glass of wine while preparing something for the man you love. Nothing can beat that, if you ask me. I was born with a little bit of a mother nature complex- I need to feed the world. In other words, if you like my food, we´ll probably be friends in no time!

Yesterday I made my anchovies pie. It´s a classic in our house, I´ve been making it for years now. I got the recipe from a friend living in England and at that time my only relationship with anchovies was that I used to pick them off the pizza. Now I think they can lift up a whole dish!

Here comes the recipe:

butter dough (buy or make your own)

1 big onion

pine kernels

chopped tomatoes

oregano

thyme

chilli pepper (cayenne pepper)

2 small boxes of anchovies

parmesan

rusk (or dried bread crumbs)

Sear the onion for a couple of minutes in a pan. Add the tomatoes and the herbs. Season with chili pepper (cayenne pepper), salt and pepper. Let is simmer for 15-20 minutes on a low temperature.

Meanwhile, form the pie dough after the pie form and save some threads to cover the pie like a blue berry pie. Stick small holes in the dough with a fork. Put it in the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

When the tomato sauce is ready, take out the pie, spread it on top of it, cover with bread crumbs, sprinkle with pine kernels and grate some parmesan on top.

Put the anchovies on top and line up the pie dough to look pretty. 15-20 minutes in the oven. Bon apetit!

Today I felt like eating something hot, spicy and consistent so I made chili con carne. It´s amazing and we always have some leftovers, which makes the little extra effort worthwhile.

My recipe is from the The Norwegian Checkered Cook book, but I add celery and cilantro.

3 bell peppers (2 green and one yellow)

3 chilis

3 garlic cloves

2 big onions

800g minced meat

3 celery stalks

300-400g brown beans

cheddar cheese

creme fraiche/sour cream

cilantro

freshly chopped tomatoes

7dl beef stock (I use Maggie or Knor)

3 spoons of tomato puree

2 spoons of caraway seeds

3 bay leaves

Fry the minced meat in a pan on both sides without breaking it, so that it doesn´t start boiling. Put it aside in a bowl. Sear the onion, garlic, bell peppers and chili. Add the tomatoes, the meat, the beef stock, the tomato puree, the bay leaves and the caraway and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add the celery and the beans and cook for 7 minutes. Sprinkle cilantro on top and serve with cheddar cheese and a spoon of creme fraiche on top. Bread is glorious together with chili con carne! Enjoy!