Missing a dear friend

It has been a long time since I have written anything on my blog and that is because I really wanted to write this post but it has taken me a long time to do it because it is a sensitive thing for me and I haven't been able to think about it clearly until now.

Most people know how fond I am of our dear friend Mookie and we all miss our strawberry blond friend badly.

Mookie first introduced himself to me when he was in the world final of the voting walls that we all used to be familiar with. He told me, in a Mookie way, that he was the only German in the competition. Well of course as soon as I got to know him I wanted to vote for him. Anyone who met him would want to vote for him.

Everyone who knows me and Mookie know that we are both football mad! Only English and German people would know how difficult it is for English and German people to discuss football in a friendly way, the rivalry is such that it is almost impossible, but with Mookie I could do that and we regularly discussed football. During the World Cup England played Germany and lost badly (as usual), Mookie was so gracious in victory that I acutally supported Germany in their next games. We also used to discuss our clubs and supported each others teams in our national leagues which was fun. Most fun of all was playing football with Mookie on Twitter. He always won but then he is German and I am English.

The picture above is one of my favourites of Mookie and how I like to remember him, dressed up for the world cup as a committed German fan. He so enjoyed the world cup and made a German flag pizza to match my flag of St George pizza for England. It always makes me smile how much Mookie likes Wayne Rooney because they are both strawberry blond.

Of course football wasn't the only thing we had in common we talked about lots of things and found out a lot about each other's countries. He extended that by generously allowing his friend Lippe to come and visit so many of us of it was wonderful to have him here.

I miss Mookie terribly and hope he will tweet from OTRB sometime because we all love him and his mum so much. We know his mum must not be rushed into doing this and we are sure she will make a decision when things feel right.

But on behalf of all your Twitter friends Mookie we love you and miss you and hope to see you again one day when you are ready. For now I am sending you and your mum lots of Kolo HUGS HUGS HUGS!

How to make a World Cup pizza

Lots of people have asked me about my pizza recipe so I decided to share it with you via my blog. I made a pizza last night in England colours for the world cup but you might decide to make it with different toppings and you may not call it a world cup pizza you don't have to.

First get your ingredients ready, these quantities are enough for two people you might want to make more or less:

225 grams/ 8oz plain flour

1 sachet of quick yeast

A shake of salt (however much you like)

25 ml/1 fluid oz olive oil

145 ml/6 fluid oz warm water

pepper

red pesto or tomato paste

mozzarella cheese or other cheese if you prefer

cherry tomatoes or a tomato cut into chunks

Little jarred peppers or other toppings to your taste.

Measure out your ingredients

Mix the flour, yeast and water and a little salt in a mixing bowl, add the oil and water and mix together into a firm dough using a large spoon.

Now here is the really fun bit, kneed the dough by hand for 4 or 5 minutes, you can squeeze it, slap it around, do whatever you like with it. Don't over work it though or it gets tough, however much fun it is leave off after 4 to 5 minutes.

Divide the dough up into however many pizzas you are making and start to flatten it out, when its a bit flat but not to flat to pick up (like mine here) spread a little olive oil on flat baking trays to preven the pizza from sticking and then put the dough sections onto them. Then spread it out with your hands until it is thin enough to form a pizza base. You do not need a round tray you can make the base round in any tray or you might like to try other exciting shapes.

Make the pizza a little larger and thinner than you want it as it will rise and be a little smaller and thicker than you make it on the tray. Leave the pizza bases to stand for approximately 1 hour, if it is warm you can leave them out in the kitchen, otherwise a very low heated oven can be used by not hot enough to cook it. If you have an airing cupboard that is ideal. Heat up the oven ready for cooking, gas mark
7, electricity 220 degrees Celsius, 425 Fahrenheit, slightly cooler if you have a fan oven.

While the pizza bases are resting you can prepare your topping, you can have whatever topping is your favourite, I use sundried tomato pesto as a sauce but you may prefer a tomato sauce it is up to you. My topping is usually mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, I like the little cherry tomatoes and those nice spicey red peppers you get in a jar but you will make your own choices. You can't see my mozzarella on the white plate but it is there.

Spread the pesto or tomato sauce thinly on the base and add the toppings. You can always make an image such as a flag of St George if you are an England football fan, good luck if you want to do the whole stars and stripes that sounds challenging and I don't know what you would use for the blue bits but I'll leave that up to you.

Once your pizza looks as you want it to it is ready for the oven. Cook for 14 minutes turing the pizzas half way through to ensure they are evenly cooked.

When it is cooked serve on a warm plate, you can slice it and share or do inidvidual ones or each of you. You may want a side salad or your human may want a glass or wine or beer. Enjoy!