<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tZVufRlMtzM/SkppUJGtvTI/AAAAAAAABYc/2AAj4uYPlp0/s1600-h/DSC05673.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tZVufRlMtzM/SkppUJGtvTI/AAAAAAAABYc/2AAj4uYPlp0/s400/DSC05673.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353206901845638450" border="0" /></a><br />Thanks to my ever-giving and long-suffering readers and <a href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2009/06/not-your-mothers-pizza.html">my brilliant idea to get them to cough up the substance of their heaving, pizza-laden minds</a><a href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2009/06/not-your-mothers-pizza.html"> for absolutely no compensation whatever</a>, my top-secret recipe file is now 18 pizzas thicker. <div><br /></div><div>Eighteen pizzas...eighteen thicker pizzas...eighteen top-secret, thicker pizzas...mmm.<div><br /></div><div>You all are a creative bunch, let me tell you. I love that people with adventurous, untamed palates read this blog. I also love that more than a few of you don't mind a little (or a lot) of the ol' BBQ sauce on your pies. We're just keepin' it real, aren't we, little Okies? </div><div><br /></div><div>In throwing myself into the painstaking, tummy-gnawing process of reading the entries and choosing the winner, I had to make a few rules post hoc. First, if I could come up with a marketing handle used by a major pizza chain for a given recipe, it was out - e.g., Sicilian, Four Meat, Greek, etc. I'm sure doing this wiped out some seriously delicious pies, but I emphasized creativity in my call for entries, so that's what had to take precedence here. </div><div><br /></div><div>Second, if it was so creative that I couldn't imagine actually eating it, the recipe was out - e.g., fish eye pizza, sundry-and-stinky-sock pizza, baby food medley pizza. Not that anyone came up with entries as zany as those, but I couldn't very well expose the people who brought the true-to-life crazy without making a few enemies, right?</div><div><br /></div><div>Third, I had to pay some attention to execution. A few of you had some ideas for flavor profiles that really made my mouth water, but when you wrote about how you'd actually put the ingredients together, I got turned off. There are some basic rules for pizza construction, in my opinion (on the conservative side though it is), and all creativity and originality has to happen within those bounds. </div><div><br /></div><div>Okay, enough pontificating. The Joe Momma's bucks go to: </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2009/06/not-your-mothers-pizza.html">Kelly Cook and her Chicken Tikka Masala pizza</a>!<br /><br /><blockquote>How about chicken tikka masala pizza? Garlic naan crust (Indian flatbread), slightly spicy tomato cream sauce, topped with shredded tandoori chicken, fried basil leaves and paneer (Indian cheese). I may have to whip one of those up myself!</blockquote><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>First, anyone who utters "Chicken Tikka Masala" has my full and complete attention. My second thought was, "Nah, it'd just be too weird." But then, Kelly brought the idea home with the garlic naan bread crust, fried basil leaves and paneer cheese. Lord have mercy oh my Krishna Joe Momma, that made me hungry.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kelly, <a href="mailto:%20tashadoestulsa@gmail.com">e-mail me</a> to claim your prize. You'd better hurry, or I might eat your Joe Momma's bucks in a fit of wanting and desire for my first true love - no, not the sweaty high school football player I met when I was 15, but rather, the pizza pie. </div><div><br /></div><div>Did you know the whole reason the sweaty high school football player and I even started dating was because we worked at the same pizza place? True story. The pizza love, it runs deep. </div><div><br /></div></div>