Tuna/Chicken Salad Melt and NEW CONTRIBUTOR!

I am very proud to present O'Donovan's on the Waterfront's newest contributor, Alyssa Huberts! Alyssa has been responsible for several of our previous recipes, such as the Pear-Chicken Pizza and Thai-Chicken Pizza. Seeing as John and Scott are having some trouble coming up with new recipes, we hope that Alyssa will fill the void in your life caused by inadequate Leo's creativity. We'll have her bio up on the "About Us" Page shortly. And now, her first original recipe!

~2 English Muffin halves, toasted if desired (available from MYOP)
~Sliced Tomato
~Tuna or Chicken Salad
~Slice of Cheese

Put the English Muffin Halves, openfaced, on a make-your-own-pizza plate. Lay a tomato slice on each. Spread tuna/chicken salad and top with a slice of cheese. Send it through the Make-your-own-pizza oven and enjoy!


Editor's note: This is seriously an amazing dish. You can try it with a bagel as well, but English muffins work better for the size of the tomato slice. Also, I find that the tuna works a little better because the mayo in the chicken salad melts and gets a little messy.

Simple Pleasure Mondays: Baked Potatoes

So before we get to the actual subject of this post, we have many updates going on here. First, we know that there haven't been many original recipes as of late. Have no fear, that is about to change. Check back on Wednesday for more.

In other news, we've just hit 10,000 views all time! That's great, but tell your friends about us so we can continue to grow. Remember that if you read this blog regularly, you can follow us either on Facebook or on Blogger to make things easier. Check on the sidebar over there -->

Now for today's suggestion: the Baked Potato Bar
We've previously raved about the carving station, especially their lunchtime sandwiches. However, we also need to tout their baked potatoes, which are always available, without a line, and are always quite delicious.  I've taken to eating one literally at almost every meal. Just snag one, cut it open, spoon in some sour cream as well as bacon, chives, or cheese, and enjoy. As an added bonus, Leo's prepares their baked potatoes how I call, "Red Lobster Style," with sea salt on the skin. This makes the skin really quite delicious and you get the extra health benefits of it. I hope you all try this out!

Simple Pleasure Mondays: Hot and Cold

Hello, we've missed you all!

As you may have noticed, OOTW ran into a bit of a stall over the past few weeks. Part of that is due to increased business with schoolwork and ultimate, but part is also due to the fact that our new year innovation has begun to wear off =( . Of course we're still working when we get the chance (and we might have a new contributor soon!) but for now, we want to ask for your contributions. Many of our ideas come from things we see or hear about from our friends, but for all of you readers that we haven't met, feel free to email us or comment with your ideas! We'll credit you of course if you would like.

On that note, here's this week's simple pleasure: hot soups and cold salad dishes.

Leo's rotates their soups on a daily basis, and they're generally pretty enjoyable. I promise you won't have to wait in line, and with the coming winter months, they might be exactly what you're looking for in a hot and comforting dish.

If, on the other hand, you wish you didn't have to eat something lukewarm that was intended to be hot (yeah, it happens all the time, we know), try something meant to be eaten cold. Now I don't claim to be an expert on making traditional salads, but I have come to enjoy some of the cold pasta, rice, or vegetable salads that Leo's concocts between the fruit and waffle-maker downstairs. They sometimes contain some really unusual and delicious ingredients, and the variation is quite satisfying. As an added bonus, they're usually vegetarian and relatively healthy. Enjoy!

Simple Pleasure Mondays: The "value" of grab 'n go

Hello O'Donnovators,

Happy Mid-midterm Fortnight! Don't know about y'all but this week promises to be an absolute killer in terms of workload; best of luck to everyone on their myriad midterms, essays, and what have you.

As you contemplate the option of grab 'n go as a viable and time-saving alternative in the midst of all those assignments you've been procrastinating on, let's take a closer look at how much you're paying for what you get. Here is what one grab 'n go lunch consists of:

-1 entree (salad, sandwich)
-1 beverage (water, soda, milk, juice)
-2 sides (fruit, chips, yogurt)
-1 dessert (cookies) or an additional side

All for the price of $11.55; breaking it down into ballpark proportional prices for each of these items, here's how much you're paying:

-Entree: $6
-Beverage: $1
-Sides: $1.50 each ($3 total)
-Dessert: $1.50

Now flash in your mind the type of food you're getting for each of those prices. Good grief--$1.50 for those measly two cookies? $1.50 for an apple? A whopping $6 for a pre-packaged sandwich?! Reallocate those prices however you want, but you'll never come out on top...

We understand grab 'n go is fast and convenient, but when you break it down and see how much each individual item is costing you, it's really a shame. Since this is supposed to be a simple pleasure post, I leave you with the recommended pleasure of getting a decent meal value from actually inside Leo's rather than taking grab 'n go as an alternative. A great way of thinking about this when you pick your meal plan: choose the number of meals that you will definitely eat inside Leo's, because for every grab 'n go you use you're paying about $5 more than what you'd pay for similar items at Safeway, Wisey's, or other eateries.

If you're concerned about time, here are some suggestions for the fastest ways to get in and out of Leo's with a good meal:
1) Pasta/Vegetarian: I love pasta, and there's not much you can do to mess it up. You will have your food within 30 seconds of walking into Leo's.
2) Pizza/Bistro Pasta & Garlic Bread: see last week's post for details
3) Make your own sandwich: Rarely a line, and you can get in and out quickly. I love their chicken salad.

Pesto-Veggie MYOP

A few weeks ago was Be Well week here at Georgetown, and Leo's was quite involved in getting people to eat healthier and smarter. I decided I'd post something I made a little while ago, which is a much healthier pizza than those we usually make (decked out with any combination of cheeses, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and ranch dressing)

Ingredients:

Pesto Sauce (from fresh pasta line)

MYOP crust

Mozzarella Cheese

Baby Spinach leaves

Onions

Green Peppers

Tomatoes

Black Olives (optional)

Oregano, Parmesan Cheese

The key to this is getting the pesto from upstairs. Generally if you bring the workers a small bowl and ask for a scoop or 2 or sauce, they'll oblige. Take that downstairs and spread it on a pizza crust, saving a little bit to go on top at the end. Sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese, then arrange baby spinach leaves over. Sprinkle evenly with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and olives if desired. Let the pizza cook, then top it off with the remaining sauce drizzled over, plus some oregano and Parmesan.

Note how the olives here really add to the appearance of the pizza, but if you're not a fan, it's definitely good enough without them.

National Coming Out Day Rainbow Wrap

As most of you probably know, today is National Coming Out Day. In accordance with this important event, John and Scott decided that, in full support of the LGBTQ community, we would celebrate with a themed Leo's dish. I decided upon a Rainbow Wrap to reflect the recognized rainbow flag of the community.

Unfortunately there are literally zero foods that are naturally blue (blueberries and blue corn are more purple-ish), and besides, you definitely can't find them in Leo's. Instead, I made sure to get myself a Mr. Blue to drink alongside this meal.

The ingredients in the wrap, in order (which is super important, even if the staff member gets mad at you) are:

Tomatoes
Carrots
Corn
Spinach
Cucumbers
Black Beans (closest I could get to blue)
Red Onions

I topped it off with a bit of Italian dressing.

On a more generalized note, I would like to stress that color contrast is extremely important when creating any type of wrap. Also, be careful of the extreme overpowering flavor of Feta cheese, but I support the incorporation of corn and black beans. 

Also today was Leo's attempted celebration of Oktoberfest, which was iffy at best. Though I sorta enjoyed the pretzels, and the chocolate dipped banana was quite good, I was unable to find the rootbeer kegs that were promised...

Simple-Pleasure Mondays: New and Improved Bistro

For this week's contribution, we would like to highlight a section of Leo's that appears vastly superior to what it was last year: the Bistro.

Besides overseeing our favorite station, (MYOP) the Bistro serves simple foods that are quickly accessible (unlike At Home) and very consistently edible. Pizza is pizza, but I've found that Leo's does a pretty good job with it.

Be wary of the calzones, as they are not always good, but an interesting combo is generally worth trying.

The new garlic bread is fantastic, I get it all the time.

The pasta/vegetarian dish they have off to the side is a good bet, but is sometimes too saucy or vegetable-y for me, so use your judgement.

Finally, some of the new specialty pizzas are quite delicious, with Chicken Fajita Pizza, some Chipotle thing, and various options with pesto. Beware the one with bacon, however, that was a bit much

Georgetown Dining Survey! Please Participate!

You all should probably have just gotten an email from Georgetown Dining with a link to a survey. We STRONGLY encourage you to take this survey to help G-Town Dining determine what they can do to improve your eating needs on campus. It doesn't take too long, but can if you write a super long comment like I did.

I have included below my responses to the generalized Leo's quality section, as well as my lengthy comment raving against At Home no longer being self-serve.

"The new policy this year of having employees serve each student's food at the "At Home" station is extremely inefficient and unsatisfactory. College students need to be able to decide how much they want to eat, and need to be able to get food very quickly. At peak eating times, the line is unbearable, and students are not even able to serve their own food while a staff member is retrieving another pan. The At Home station is supposed to be entirely pre-made food that is easy to get on a plate quickly, and having staff members serve it is extremely detrimental to the dining experience. If cleanliness is a concern, it is certainly more efficient to have one staff member watching the station frequently to clean up any messes than to have two constantly occupied by serving food. The other unoccupied staff member could then aid in refilling pans of food in a more timely manner. If the concern is about controlling portions: Students pay for an all-you-can eat meal plan, and should be able to take as much as they wish without getting back in line multiple times (assuming of course that they eat it all). Thank you for your considerations."

Nacho Salad

Yet another change we adore about Leo's this year: the taco station is open during dinner too! An awesome executive call on the staff's part. 

Keep in mind they don't have exactly the same menu as they do during lunch; there is usually a pot of chicken and nacho sauce instead of the regular rice and meat of the day, and no tortillas. With this in mind you can fake your way to a decent burrito by grabbing a green tortilla from the "tossed n wrapped" station, or try our latest O'Donnovation: the nacho salad. A delicious and far more healthful way to get all the guacamole and black bean goodness of nachos without the carbs of regular nachos (keep that toned, sexy core you've been working on with the help of my brilliant ab workout known as the "mitchslabs"--inquire by email or in person).

Ingredients:

-Your choice of lettuce from the salad bar

-Assorted toppings fromt the taco station

Directions:

Prettymuch just get a well sized pile of lettuce from the salad bar downstairs, then head back up to the upper level and top it with all the nacho fixin's you desire. My favorite selections as featured below include shredded chicken, black beans, jalepeños, tomato, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, and a few crumbled chips sprinkled on top. 

Fraîche....

Simple Pleasure Mondays: How to Roll a Burrito

Fellow Leo's-ers (and winners),

Given my California heritage and affinity for Mexican food, I must first inform you in an especially smug manner that burritos are not actually Mexican food! Now I will proceed by showing you how to correctly roll such a feax-Mexican delicacy properly, as this greatly enhances the eatability of the burrito.

1. Begin by mixing all your burrito ingredients together with a fork--no one likes a big bite of only sour cream--and gather all the ingredients into the lower third of the tortilla.

2. Fold up the two sides of the tortilla only along the part where the ingredients are.

3. Bring the bottom part of the tortilla up over all of the ingredients, and cinch it down just above all the ingredients.

4. Fold the remaining parts of the sides of the tortilla inward, and roll it all upward until the tortilla is completely wrapped.

New Drink Combinations

Expanding upon our previous post, we have developed several new drinks, separate from everything you can create at the new Coke Freestyle Machine. As always, achieving partial separation of the components is optimal, since you'll get a cool layered look that everyone will be envious of.

Here they are:




Mr. Blue
Fill 2/3 with Blue Powerade, then top off with Hi-C Pink Lemonade until you achieve this perfect color.

Ginger-tea
I know this looks odd, but it actually tastes pretty good. Fill halfway with Ginger-ale, then add Unsweetened Iced Tea.












Blue Lemonade:
Mix equal parts of Blue Powerade with regular lemonade. Note how the color layering can vary based on which is first.









Punch Tea:
Fill 1/3 with Hi-C Fruit Punch, then top off with Unsweetened Iced Tea. The fruit punch gives sweetness to the tea.

Purple Drank:
This was created sortof by accident. This is an experiment in chromatography. Start with Blue Lemonade above, then add fruit punch. If you imagine that it tastes like the grape it looks like, then it will. Otherwise, it's just sorta cool.

Eggplant (or anything)-Parm Panini

This is a very simple kick-up with large potential for variation. The Panini press is very under-utilized, but has great value.

Take any ______-Parmesan, such as Chicken or Eggplant, and put it on a sub roll from the sandwich station. Add in some extra Provolone Cheese, some marinara sauce, and Panini press that thing. Pay no attention to the crazy sizzling when the sauce spills out onto the Panini press. It should look slightly delicious by the time it’s done.

 Also note the garlic bread, which is one of my favorite staples this year at Leo's

Simple Pleasure Mondays: At Home Sandwiches

Fair Leo's Patrons,

Today I write on the fantastically improved lunch option of the at home station: the sandwiches from the "At Home" station on the upper level of O'Donovan's. Oven roasted turkey breast or seared roast beef come ready-to-carve and placed on a deliciously warm ciabatta roll... If you haven't already, try it with some cheese from the downstairs deli.

Granted neither of us are a fan of the fact that we are not able to serve ourselves, but all the Leo's employees have been super generous about proportions. We're huge fans of this new addition especially, so next time at lunch give it a shot. Hopefully a picture to come.

Keep checking in with us this week for more O'Donnovations, and good garsh check out Scott's Make-your-own Apple Pie post below!

Make-your-own Apple Pie!

This is undoubtedly our most ambitious creation yet, and it took a good amount of planning, tweaking, and preparation, but it was definitely worth it. I guarantee that if you do make this, you will gain the eternal respect and admiration of all your friends, plus whoever else is lucky enough to witness the glorious event. Note: It is MUCH better if you can make during weekend brunch as they will still have the brown sugar out by the oatmeal. Otherwise you're forced to use powdered sugar.

Total preparation time, including cooking, is about 15-20 minutes, but it's worth it if you have time to spare.

Ingredients:

1 apple, Granny Smith works best

3-4 Tbsp brown sugar, use powdered (from near waffles) if unavailable

dusting of cinnamon to cover sugar, probably 1/4 tsp.

Cinnamon Toast Applesauce- 1 medium bowl

MYOP crust

3 pats butter

extra brown sugar and cinnamon

The easiest way to prepare this is to grab an apple, then a bowl full of your sugar and cinnamon. Then make your Cinnamon Toast Applesauce with about 2 scoops of applesauce and a thick covering of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Set these down at your table, then get your butter and a MYOP crust on a circular grill platter.

Start by cutting up your apple into thin slices. As a side note, if you're willing, the recipe could benefit from more than 1 apple, but it isn't totally necessary. Spread the apples out on a plate and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over them, turning to coat, then let sit for several minutes.

In the meantime, spread one of the pats of butter on the crust. Then spread the Cinnamon Toast Applesauce over it just as you would do with boring old tomato sauce.

The apple mixture on the left, and applesauce spread on the crust to the right. Note that this does not use brown sugar, nor do I have the CTC mixed into the applesauce.







Arrange the apples on top to cover completely. Dab some more butter around on the apples, then sprinkle a little more cinnamon sugar over the top. Hand it to the Bistro MYOP attendant and watch their amusement. They shouldn't give you trouble, but if they do, be confident, tell them you've done it before and it's fine (at least, I've done it before...)

While it's cooking grab 2 scoops of ice cream. Typically you'd go for vanilla, but Leo's has been serving this "Deep Dish Apple" for some time, which is what I used.

When your pie comes out, top it with the ice cream and enjoy, with or without a spoon.

Oh yes...

Some additional notes. I've thought about adding a second crust on the top, or at least something of a crumble. Feel free to experiment, but these are my experiences:

-MYOP crust does not crease well, so it may be difficult to get a top crust to stay in place

-A lattice crust would look really sick, but I don't know how it would work. If you don't know what a lattice crust looks like, never mind.

-Granola could be a potential topping, to make this sort of like an apple crumble. Feel free to try, however, do not use Cinnamon Toast Crunch on the top, as it will burn, as seen below:

In any case, feel free to experiment, but I sincerely hope you enjoy this massive O'Donnovation.

Pear, Chicken, and Swiss MYOP

This is definitely a step toward the gourmet at Leo’s. The pears add a gentle sweetness that contrasts with the usual saltiness of a MYOP. Pears are not always available, so be sure to take advantage of your few opportunities, especially before they go out of season.

Ingredients:

1 Fresh Pear

Chicken, preferably grilled, but baked works as well. If nothing, use MYOP chicken

4-5 pieces Swiss cheese from sandwich station

baby spinach

mushrooms

MYOP crust, sauce, cheese

onions

peppers
Parmesan cheese, oregano (optional)

You’ll need to start by gathering all your ingredients on a plate, then take it to MYOP to assemble it all. Of course the key is the pear. Cut thin slices, at least 10 of them, it should take more than half the whole pear. Gather some baby spinach leaves and mushrooms, and a grilled/baked chicken breast if possible (sadly they’re not available at the Bistro anymore, but cut it into thin slices if you can get one).

At the MYOP station, top a pizza crust with one ladle of sauce, then lay your Swiss cheese over it and very lightly cover with mozzerella cheese. Sprinkle with onions and peppers, then arrange the spinach leaves around it. Top with the chicken, then arrange your pear slices on the very top. If you desire, top with pizza toppings such as oregano and Parmesan cheese.

Yum.

Simple Pleasure Mondays: Delectable Desserts + Sanitary Conditions at Leo's

This informative and colorful--albeit rather short--simple pleasure is to laud the efforts of Leo's on their astronomical dessert improvements. Check out the editor's choice, new and improved cheesecake. Huzzah!

Onto our next topic, sanitary conditions!
...have taken a turn for the worse (see photo). Safe to say we'll be avoiding the MYOP station for a little while.

Stay tuned for expanded drink creations, perhaps a guest editorial, and more O'donnovations in the coming weeks!

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich

After the huge success of the Buffalo Chicken Pizza, this creation became quickly apparent as a way to spice up (literally) Chicken Finger Thursdays. It's actually surprisingly easy to create, and only takes a few minutes. Feel free to try this with any other chicken that you can find, but it's definitely better using the Chicken Tenders.

Ingredients:
4 pats butter
several dollops hot sauce (not Tabasco)
Long Sandwich Roll
Lettuce
2-3 Chicken Tenders
Bleu Cheese or Ranch Dressing

First, our patented Buffalo Sauce method. unwrap the pats of butter into a small bowl, then microwave them until totally melted, about 30 seconds. Add several dashes of hot sauce and stir it all together until you get that delicious orange color.
Get a plate with a few pieces of lettuce and a sandwich roll, then pick up your chicken tenders. At your table, put some lettuce in the roll and set it aside, then pour the buffalo sauce over the chicken tenders and turn to coat. Place your buffalo chicken on the sandwich roll, then go to the salad dressing and top it all off with some Bleu Cheese or Ranch. Enjoy!

 

Edit: Leo's now provides buffalo sauce near the ketchup, BBQ sauce, and mustard dispensers.  I still prefer to make my own, but this is an acceptable alternative that saves significant time.

Double Edit: The Diner today (10/4) had an attempt at recreating this as their Chicken Special. Consensus? It's much better when you do it my way.

Simple Pleasure Mondays: Coke Freestyle

Let's be honest. That large, oracular-looking coke machine next to the ice cream station on the bottom floor is starting to give us the creeps. It's got 20 banners for itself, has a touchscreen, and is probably secretly watching us to make sure we don't take food from the dining hall (unsuccessfully--GOT HEEM!). That said, I had always been curious about trying the Freestyle after seeing one at a pizza place back in California but being too cheap to pay for a soda--since all drink options are complimentary at O'Donovan's, I had to give it a shot.

My verdict? It's a pretty ridiculous machine, but worth a try just to quench your curiosity (ironic pun to make fun of their banners intended). It's got all the same options as the coke machines you'll find at the sides of each level of Leo's, plus it gives you the option to inject the soda of your choice with any number of bizarre syrups. Surprisingly, a few of the syrups were subtle and delicious--the orange-flavored coke was a personal favorite of mine.

Nevertheless, fair Leo's patrons, unless you've stumbled upon a combination that you just can't resist (please let us know) don't bother waiting in the occasionally heinous line to try the thing. As hard as it might be to believe, the machine doesn't have feelings--although given the pace of technological advancement these days I couldn't say for sure.


Stay tuned for an exposé on what's got students waiting so long for the new and improved stir fry station, as well as a plea for Leo's to retract how its new "At Home" Station is run.

Simple Pleasure Mondays: Odd-hour Dining as a Response to New Policies

Hello hello! Welcome back to another year of fine dining tips and recipes from your friends at OOTW. I (John) have admittedly been slacking off with regards to posts this year; as if living in Nevils with a block 75 meal plan weren't enough, I have been faced with a flooded apartment this past weekend... Irregardless (yes, that should be a word) I'm back to give you what I believe to be a pointer that, due to the changes in O'Donovan's this year, is more essential than ever: odd-hour dining.
What is odd-hour dining, you ask? Why should I only eat at 9, 11, 1, 3, 5, or 7? Apologies for the dad-like humor notwithstanding, odd-hour dining is simply the practice of eating at Leo's during the times that are less crowded. Odd-hour dining can turn into somewhat of an art form; one must find a time when a sufficient amount of food is still being served, yet the lines are short enough and tables are plentiful.

Usually, a safe timetable for odd-hour dining is as follows: breakfast at 9:45 am, lunch at 11:30 am or 2:00 pm, and dinner at 5:15 pm or 7:45 pm. Of course this will fluctuate on any given day, and just as the freshness of the baked cod at the "At Home" station, is sometimes unpredictable and may turn out unfavorably.
I say that this is an especially important time to take advantage of odd-hour dining mostly because of the changes we've seen on the upper level of Leo's. Much like New Jersey (#HamptonHomeland) gas stations, the food is now doled out by employees rather than self-served by students. In my personal opinion this hinders the efficiency of the Leo's lines, causing unnecessary congestion and taking valuable Leo's personell away from preparing more food instead (for all you fellow econ people, this appears to be Bastiat's broken windon fallacy incarnate). I am tempted to contact Leo's staff and inquire about the new policy--it may be time for another campaign... But until then, odd-hours dining is the best way around this new change.

What Happened to the Pasta??? (Plus MYO Chicken Parm)

^^This is the generalized sentiment of about 90% of Leo's patrons tonight, in the first night of meal plans at Georgetown. Do not fear, yet, though. I have heard that the "Pasta Palate" will return, but supplies are not yet ready for its debut. If it is not back soon, don't worry, we'll definitely get on it.
Of greater concern is the fact that food is now served to us by Leo's staff members. Though this does allow us to interact better and probably reduces mess, it doesn't work for hungry and rushed college students. Hopefully something can be worked out with this aspect as well.
Oh and if you haven't seen the new touch-screen drink machine by the ice cream, it's a must. 
All that being said, I do like the new look of O'Donovan's, it's definitely more gourmet. Check back in a bit for more updates on the transition for the new year.

But for now: a recipe, our first of the year!

Make-your-own Chicken Parmesan

I have always found that the Chicken Parmesan is one of Leo's premiere dishes, so today I decided to make it myself. It's especially nice because there's always chicken available somewhere, and always at least one kind of pasta. Sorry I don't have a picture.

Ingredients:
Plain Pasta (preferably spaghetti)
Chicken- either grilled, or if you're lucky, Chicken Finger Thursday
Mozzarella cheese (either near the pasta, or from MYOP)
Parmesan cheese (from the Bistro pizza section)
Marinara sauce

Start by getting some pasta in a bowl or plate, and place your chicken on top, preferably a bit off to the side. Cover the chicken generously with the two cheeses, then head to the microwave. Microwave it just enough to melt the cheese, but not enough to make anything mushy (like the pasta or chicken's coating), perhaps 30-45 seconds. Head back upstairs and top it off with the marinara sauce.