DIY - PIZZA!

Today I'm doing something different.. I'm going to be blogging about food! I probably won't do this often but I have genuinely been asked by a few people to blog about this specific dish.

Have a look at my about me, you'll see there somewhere that I speak about a certain obsession of mine.. Oh yes. It's pizza. I mean we all do like a bit of this Italian cake but in my life I have met some people who are also just that little bit more .. 'interested' in pizza.

I, personally, can't get enough of it and could probably eat it 6/7 days a week, for the rest of my life, no exaggeration. Pizza can be complimented by a number of sides, contributing to a balanced meal, at the same time as being quit a balanced meal in itself.

Pizza has been around for around 200 years now. The term was first recorded in AD 997, in a Latin manuscript from the southern Italian town of Gaeta, in Lazio, Central Italy. The modern pizza was invented in Naples, Italy, and the dish and its variants have since become popular in many areas of the world.

The modern pizza evolved from early flatbread meals created by the Greeks and the Romans. The ancient Greeks covered their bread with oils, herbs and cheese. And later, The Romans developed placenta cake, a sheet of dough topped with cheese and honey and flavoured with bay leaves.

Early forms of pizza were actually found in Greece, in an ancient underground cellar, where 1,000,000,000 freshly preserved pizzas were found, 20,000 years old.

Okay, that's not true, I get carried away, if you know me then you know that one of my favourite things to do is telling people something crazy with a straight face, momentarily leaving people shocked, until I gift them with relief. That 2 second look of despair is priceless. 

Anyway, less about my silly ways. Pizza. Yes. Ever since an early age, my family have made pizzas together instead of buying them from stores or take-aways, credit has to be given to my auntie Jennifer who first gave my mum the wonderful recipe and a big thanks is due to the pizza company situated in Viersen, Germany (who gave my auntie there own recipe).

Making pizzas at home saves you a BUCKET load, and nothing taste better than the work of your own hands. "The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands." Deuteronomy 28:12.

For the last 5 years, I have been eating pizzas religiously. Working at Pizza Hut was a main factor, I was addicted to all the different pizzas they sold but working there also made my want for homemade pizza greatly increase. I now consider myself a pro pizza maker and a lot of the pies I have made can be viewed on my Instagram!

Here's what you need..

Ingredients

300g Strong Bread Flour

1tsp Salt

1tsp Instant Yeast

1tbsp Olive Oil

200ml Warm Water

Toppings

Toppings do vary dependant on each person. Here are the toppings I go for, for 1 pizza..

4 Slices of Salami

4 Slices of Pepperoni

3 Mushroom

10 Olives (20 halves)

1 Bacon Rasher

Half a small cup of Sweetcorn

Buffalo Mozzarella

Mixed Herbs (as much as you like)

Thyme (as much as you like)

And here's what you've all been waiting for, instructions..

THE DOUGH

1. PREHEAT THE OVEN AT GASMARK 8

2. Measure up everything that you need, use scales for the flour. tsp = teaspoon, tbsp = tablespoon.

3. Get a big bowl, pour the flour into the bowl with the yeast and salt. When you've done that mix them well and consistently.

4. Make a well in the middle and pour in the olive oil and warm water.

5. Mix it all together.

6. Make sure you kneed the dough very well, it seems like a long process but the more attention you pay to the dough, the better your pizza will turn out, take my word for it.

THE SAUCE

1.Chop up half an onion, preferably a white one.
2. Open your tin of chopped tomatoes with your teeth (or a can opener)
3. Heat up about a tbsp of olive oil.
4. Add the onions and any seasoning, but don't go to mad as you don't want to lose the essentially natural tomato taste.
5. After about 4-7 mins with onions on low heat, add the tomatoes.
6. Add some anything else you like, but again.. DON'T GO OVERBOARD.
7. Leave it to cook for another 10 minutes and then leave the pot on the side to stand and get back to rolling out that perfectly kneeded dough.

THE PIZZA

1. Hopefully your dough isn't too tough, if so.. you may need to add some olive, about half a teaspoon and a dash of water.
2. Flour your surface and proceed to roll out the dough.
3. Flour your pizza pan/oven dish.
4. Do most of the stretching outside of the pan, but you may need to stretch it a lil' bit more if it's not touching the sides and you're a perfectionist, comme moi.
5. Apply your sauce and then your cheese.
6. A tip I picked up from Pizza Hut - PMV (Pepperoni, Meat, Veg), this is the order in which you ideally should be topping your pizza.
7. Put it into your pre-heated oven, for about 20-30 minutes, dependant on how brown you want it. I leave it in for just over 20 minutes, my mum pushes the 30s.
8. VOILA, you've just saved yourself about £13! Enjoy the work of your own hands.

Sit back and enjoooooy.

Now, presenting to you some pictures of the process..

The whole process may seem a tad time-consuming but I assure you it doesn't take long at all, about an hour in total, as quickly as 40 minutes for me sometimes. And all for a taste that is unbeatable! Go and make yourself a wholesome homemade Italian pizza pie NOW. 

Stay tuned and stay blessed!

MVSTER OF GOOD DEEDS - MVRK BUSTOS

Hi guys, I trust that you're all making the most of your Monday and feeling absolutely fab. Just in case this isn't true for you, and in fact, you find yourself feeling down on this blessed day, I've prepared this post especially for you.

I, myself, had a wonderful weekend spent in the company of my amazing friends. Some of whom, passionate as moi, have started a media channel promoting healthy ideals of living, called Collective Truths. I was honoured when I was invited to join the movement and will be blogging more about them/giving you links and updates in the near future.

We are currently in the process of organising a day out, where will be looking to give a voice to the homeless community of our beloved capital. The plan is to spend a day interviewing homeless men and women on the streets of London, shedding light on what homeless life truly entails. The day will be documented by the fabulous Benjamin Bishop as we aim to uncover some of the secrets of the streets and to see what exactly, if anything, is being done for our fellow brothers and sisters. Over the next week will be looking extensively into the history of homelessness, gathering information and knowledge before embarking on a potentially gruelling, yet rewarding day.

My inspiration originally came from the time I spent living in London. During this stint, I met a countless amount of homeless ladies and gentlemen all over the capital, I even had a friend who chose to live with the homeless, in a shelter, situated in Euston. I found that every single person I spoke to, had never received any form of help once they found themselves in that dreaded down-ward spiral of life. It's a growing concern of mine that the country we live in seems to, as the talented Tupac Shakur once said about his own nation, 'eat it's own babies', not caring about those who fall to the bottom of the pile. I would be naïve, however, to think that this is just a national problem.

Today a news story broke of an incident on Skid Row, Los Angeles, where 4 LAPD officers were filmed shooting a homeless man dead. This blatant disregard of life is something that needs to be addressed right away, already this year we have seen 100,000s of people taking to the streets over the abuse of power demonstrated by police officers, especially in the U.S., in the past few months.

Click here for the Daily Mail article.

Thankfully, this is a rare incident, but.. sadly, this isn't the only way the homeless are being mistreated. As stewards of the Earth, it is our God-given duty to look after each other and the planet, two things that we seem to be failing miserably at doing. Maybe there won't ever be a mass pro-homeless movement, this however, isn't an excuse to do absolutely nothing. We can ALL, individually or collectively, make a change. Try and give someone a moment of your time, have a chat with someone who looks like they have no one to talk to.

One man (another huge inspiration), Mark Bustos, has set an great example for us to follow, Mark, who may work in a high-end hair salon in New York but once a week he takes to the streets to give homeless people free haircuts. Bustos has been offering free haircuts every Sunday since May 2012. His girlfriend often joins him and brings the 'clients' food. 

This is a truly beautiful story, where one man, simply lowers himself to recognise what another men and women truly needed and he gives it to them, no questions answered, expecting NOTHING in return.

When cheekily asked if taking photos was a publicity stunt, Mark replied "I didn't take photos of the haircuts, but now he does because he wants to inspire others to do great things for fellow human beings."

Here are some examples of the amazing work that Mark has done for the streets of New York..

His gratitude isn't only exercised in the Big Apple, Mr. Bustos has taken his heavenly hands to Los Angeles where he has performed over 100 haircuts on the ever-receptive, ever-grateful homeless population. Absolutely everyone needs to feel loved.

For constant updates on this man's tremendous work, follow him on Instagram, click here.

But wait I have more for you..

FROM NEW YORK TO HACKNEY

Another story, that pulled on my heartstrings, involving yet another homeless man, broke early last year of a young girl who was out, partying, in the hip area of Dalston, Hackney, when she came across a 'genuine, unassuming man'. The man was a 64 year old, native Jamaican and had one thing he craved. No, not crack-cocaine, not heroin or any strain of opiate, all this man wanted was to go back to Jamaica where he knew he would live a happy life, reunited with his family, free of stress.

Ms Baker said: “He didn’t want money or booze, he just said he loved a ginger beer, so I went and got him a ginger beer and a sandwich. He was a genuinely lovely, unassuming man.

“He told me that all he wants more than anything in the world is to go back to Jamaica where he says he will be fine and happy again.”

Check out the fully story, published by the Hackney Gazette.

The next day she put out a plea on the internet site Go Fund Me, and within 24 hours the target of £800 for a flight to Jamaica had been met 10 times over, with donations coming from as far away as Canada, Cape Town and Dubai.

The plan now is to use the money to help set up Michael in Jamaica and hopefully get him off the streets.

On Monday, Ms Baker set out to track him down to relay the good news, and was delighted to find him in the same spot where she met him.

She said: “He was so grateful, if not totally in shock. I am not sure if he is convinced it’s happening yet. The good news is he has a passport and family that he can go back to, so it should be easier and quicker to get him home than it could have been otherwise. I have a lot to sort out but I am determined it will happen.”

I hope these stories touch you as much as they have me and gives you hope that every single person has the ability to change the world for better. Realise that one of the best feelings you can.. feel, is from making someone's day. Divert some of the attention away from yourself and your iPhone 10 and make someone's day!

Stay tuned and stay blessed all, have the best week!

COOL POINTERS; Talk To A Stranger..

“Don’t talk to strangers.”

There’s one global piece of advice that I think we all remember getting from our parents at an early age. It’s right up there with:

“Don’t do drugs.”

“Don’t talk back.” and

“Look both ways when crossing.”

This is the kind of instruction you get at a very young age and it doesn’t usually come with much explanation. It’s just one of those universal truths that we seem to accept as law for all human beings..

“Don’t talk to strangers, it’s dangerous.” That’s about as far as it ever gets. If you're as lucky as I was, you may have heard "Don't talk to strangers, most people are lovely, some are bad". We don't realise the direct impact we have on the lives of the youth. If a child is brought up on the first ideal - "Don't talk to stranger, it's dangerous" you can see how later in life that same child will find it hard to meet new people, no?

But don't get me wrong.. It’s not really bad advice for a 3-year-old. As they doesn’t have the ability yet to see the bad in people, bless them.. they're just too innocent.

But it’s terrible advice for adults.

Talking to strangers is one of the most important things we can do. Strangers hold the keys to all kinds of knowledge that we want. They help us understand more about people and how we relate to each other by unlocking cultural misunderstandings.

Strangers have so much to offer us, and I think we should go out of our way to talk to more of them. I promise you that every 'stranger' has the answer to at least 1 of your 100s of unanswered questions!

This was my most recent experience with a strange..

On the 16th of January, I went to my guy's house, he wasn't in so I spoke to his flat mate properly for the first time (amazing chat), spoke about about our perceptions on the real meaning of life, our disconnection with nature and  each other. 

Anyway, left there about.. 7pm (meant to be meeting my boy, Dominic). Went to the bus stop in town, where an older guy (later found out he was 72) was rambling on to his friend slightly erratically about something he couldn't get his head round. He was saying that he one had a friend who was a gardener for 50+ years, who after 10 odd years on the job could tell (not predict, not forecast, TELL) him what the weather was going to be like for a day, sometimes a few days, and he was ALWAYS right. Despite what the "experts" & "professionals" were saying.

I thought to myself "No way is he talking on this subject! I have to manoeuvre my way in to conversation.." and suddenly became a part of their, once, private chat with a laugh. I said, "you're confusion is justified! You shouldn't feel crazy. It's your body's natural discontentment towards life, if we all weren't told about the weather and love with nature, don't you think after TEN years, we, humans, would also be able know what the weather is gonna be?..". 

And he just said back "exactly, that is what I mean!" And we began talking.. We spoke for AGES (about an hour), about so many things, I told him to enlighten me because I could see how much he wanted people to listen to him. 

I recorded this conversation (voice memo) because I knew I'd obviously tell people about this fabulous man! The man's name was Alan French, he told me a lot of mind-blowing facts about my town. Check this, he also told me that Tarzan was based on a true story, about a boy named Peter the Wild Boy, who was buried in Northchurh which is only 15 minutes from my house, sound unbelievable? Search 'peter the wild boy' yourself!

The last thing that this total strange told me was that that the pub near me called, 'Top of The World' represents the highest point on Earth, Everest, and the road leading up to the actual Mount Everest is called 'Northridge Way', YES.. So is the road leading up to the pub. 

I learnt so much from this absolute stranger! And feeling you get after acquiring new valuable knowledge is unbeatable, they do say 'knowledge is power'.

Click here to see Alan's hugely insightful and informative blog!

 #Talk2a'Stranger' #Brothers&Sisters

Stay tuned and stay blessed!

COOL DEBATES; 'SCIENCE HELP US' - Why Are We Racist?

Good day beautiful people! I hope you've already done your good deed for the day, whether it was helping your mum with the shopping or letting the pregnant woman behind you with two shopping bags onto the bus first.

Recently, I have spoken to many people, family, friends and professionals, about the seemingly eternal problem that is racism. Racism isn't a new phenomenon, and we've most probably all been on the receiving end of it, whether it was 'light-hearted' and 'jovial' or outright, in-your-face, r a c i s m, we've all experienced it. But the question is, why? Why are we still racist, why does it still exist? What is the 'science' behind racism?

If you've viewed my last post, you would have seen that I was talking about our life's number one enemy, fear. Fear is the main thing that stops us from doing the things we want to in life. As people, naturally, one of our favourite things to do is meeting new people, not only is this one of our favourite things to do, but it is also essential for the growth of every human being, no exaggeration. If we all spoke to each other, the knowledge we would gain would make humans, as a collective, one of the most powerful forces in the universe. But anyway, back to fear. How is fear related to racism?

About two nights ago now, I found myself knee deep in a debate on LBC (Leading Britain's Conversation, formally London's Biggest Conversation) 97.3 FM. It was around 2am and I was listening to Cristo Foufas' show, which is AMAZING. Cristo, an exuberant man of the Greek variety from St. Albans, loves to touch on all the topics that a lot of radio presenters are scared to talk about. He began by talking about UKIP and a news story that had broke, where a member of the party, Rozanne Duncan, was videoed saying that she "didn't know why, but she doesn't like negroes or people with negroid features", she then followed this by saying.. "I am in NO WAY racist", when I heard this it had me thinking.... 'what? How can that not be racist?!'...

The fab Cristo then opened up the show for listeners to call in, which they did, in their 100s. The majority agreeing with Cristo in saying that the woman was racist and her comments were derogatory. The mood of the conversation started to alter after a few people (from African backgrounds) phoned in, claiming that categorically, the entire white race is racist for one reason or another, a very racist statement, in itself, the issue was getting nowhere. This massive generalisation was picked up on by the LBC presenter, who said "hold on, we can't be making such huge generalisations.. It makes you just as bad".

After a few more opinionated callers, up stepped 'Anthony', a caller from Greater London, who votes for UKIP. Anthony came on, and some would say, bravely, defended Ms. Duncan's comments, claiming that he too was not racist but also had a problem with some Africans. This instantly alarmed me as I could hear the honesty in what he was saying, I could hear that he was genuinely distressed by his opinions and did believe that he was not racist. He specified, he stated that he was friends with plenty of Africans.. But mainly eastern and southern as he had a problem with the way Western Africans and Caribbeans looked. Cristo then stopped Anthony with a sentence, 'So.. you are basically saying that you don't like the black people that look more black?', to which Anthony replied, 'Yes. But I am NOT racist'. As you can imagine, given this day and age, Anthony was promptly laughed off the air as a racist.

I thought that something was wrong here, something fundamental had been missed and in order to get to the root of this serious problem, an element of understanding has to be applied to the situation. At 3am, eyes half shut, I tweeted Cristo, saying 'I don't think you should be so quick to call Anthony racist' and said that it seemed like he was being very honest and true to his feelings and when that is the case, you must first try and understand someone.

Cristo replied to me asking me to message him privately, where he asked for my number and said that the show would like to have me on, if I didn't mind. I accepted the offer and no sooner than 5 minutes later I received a call from the station. I spoke to the producer of the show briefly about my views and the girl I spoke to seemed to agree with, saying that Anthony seemed 'scared' more than anything.

I said 'exactly..'

Cristo then had me on the show and we spoke for a good 10 minutes on the subject. I explained what I believed the main problem was surrounding racism. I said that Anthony seemed like an honest, good person and pointed out that he wouldn't say he was friends with Africans (eastern and southern), if it wasn't true. This made it clear to me that the problem wasn't the fact that someone was a different colour, it seemed to be more about the features.. 'Why are their noses so much bigger?? Why are their lips bigger? How comes they are stronger?

Naturally, when we don't know why someone looks a certain way or why someone acts differently, you develop a natural fear towards that person. This only means that when something goes wrong, the people that you're unsure of will get the blame and as a result feel the wrath of the vexed individual. This natural fear can be seen as a wall that you put up to people, and it can only be knocked down by talking to people and learning about different people.

If you don't take the time to understand and appreciate the people around you, you are susceptible to having your mind polluted by the current social ideals we have in place.

People who are able to come out and say they don't like someone and they can't explain why, need to be helped and educated. This is clearly a cry for help as they wouldn't say a word if they were happy being labelled as a 'racist'.

The end to racism is only ever around the corner, and will come, it will come once we make social and cultural studies and integral part of the education system. When multi-cultural societies were created, basic essentials were forgotten, you cannot possibly think that throwing a bunch of people together from all the different corners of the Earth into the same place, without firstly educating people as to why we are so wonderfully different, is right. It is always bound to go wrong in some instances.

If you have a friend who seems to have a problem with people who look differently, they may not be a KKK subscriber/Nazi, talk to them, ask them why? What is it that you don't understand about the person and see if some simple explaining helps the situation.

When we call someone racist, it does absolutely nothing to help the situation and the person, it only keeps them in the same place mentally.

Taking offense to these behaviours means that you are turning it into a personal attack, the issue is well and truly global. Don't be selfish, we all do wrong, try your hardest to act with love and first understand where your opposite number is coming from, that way you can sympathise and educate them on what is right and what is truly wrong.

I hope everyone had a blessed weekend and is enjoying 2015 as much as I am. Stay blessed!

FVCE YOUR FEVRS.

"There comes a time in everyone's life where anger supersedes fear, and that's when as a person, you rise or fall"

In short, one day you'll become so pissed off with the things that hold you back that you will either tackle them and rise, or let them continuously tackle you, causing you to fall.  

Life is a journey, good or bad, it's a journey. One thing is for sure though.. and that is that life is also a blessing and NEVER a curse. So, surely that means that we should live a life free of troubles?.. This naturally brings the question, 'why is life so hard?'.

Over the past few years, I've gotten to really know and love people. I've also asked myself MANY questions and found many answers. Now, I don't know if these all of these answers are spot on, but I'm pretty sure of what I'm about to tell you guys.

'FEAR' is your life's biggest enemy.. But what does this mean.. you shouldn't watch horror films?

No.

Society has done extremely well to strip us of  our natural title as 'leaders' and 'rulers'. People have been reduced to nothing but servants, slaves and not of the Earth (which would be acceptable), but of other men. The constant fear of doing something wrong, keeps us in the position that we are in now, but I'm not saying anything new.

Watch this video..

Some of you may be thinking, 'okay... so the elephant is an absolute wimp.' But hold up, aren't we the dominant species on this Earth, aren't we top of the food chain, is this not OUR world? Why do animals attack us.. WHEN WE SHOW FEAR.

Fear also stops us in other aspects of our lives. 

So, I'm here to tell you; if you have any fears (don't take the word to literally) or insecurities that are stopping you from doing something try your hardest to break that mindset, in short, tackle that 'fear' head on and see how quickly it runs from you, making whatever you were scared of seem a lot more achievable.

I've personally always wanted to become a presenter of some sort from an early age, and throughout my short life people have said 'weird' things to me. I say weird, but really I just mean Christians amongst others, but mainly Christians, have told me that I will one day be a 'pastor' and a 'voice for my generation'. And it didn't really hit home until the past year when I realised that my dream, to become a presenter, could very easily be seen as a 'pastor' for the people, a voice for the generation.
Don't worry, I'm not just using this as an opportunity to waffle about myself, there's more..

I left university in February of last, and told myself that it wasn't for me and that you don't need a degree to be successful (which is still very true, if you are motivated enough to pursure something off of your own back). I started looking for other routes and others paths and this only came with massive pressures as I was trying to force a life path for myself that maybe just wasn't mean to be. Over the past year or so, I have spent notable time tackling my fears and found that my biggest, was that of rejection. Rejection from top universities, rejection from friends, all this led me to stay at square one. Once I faced up to these fears I was able to talk to people about the possibility of heading back to uni and pursuing my dream job. My silly fears almost stopped me from achieving what I wanted in life. Your fears only make you settle for less, so realise them and tackle them ASAP. 

Realise that there are good and bad forces in this world, and bad wants to see the destruction of everything good. The Earth is good, and bad wants to see the destruction of it and it's people (who are ALL start off good). 

 It is sadly a relentless attempt by bad to ruin us all, mentally and physically. And bad only can attack us in two ways, through fear and deception. Don't worry too much about deception, that's just when you're head plays tricks on you and you start thinking negatively about situations, attracting a negative situation, I'll talk about that more in the future.

If there's one simple lesson to take away from this post it is that positive action counters fear and positive thinking counters deception.

Stay tuned and stay blessed!