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.