The Chase Experiment

          Through my first post and responses to it, on the blog and through friends I shared my post with, it seems I am far from the only one experimenting with overcoming the dinning hall foods. This has inspired me to become more innovative and fueled my interest to expand creative menu. Amongst many failures on my part and of others I have a few new foods to add to the list. Also, I have a few ideas to inspire one to get creative. As a transfer student I've had the opportunity to experience two different types of dining halls. My freshman year I was at Champlain College, in Burlington Vermont, which had one dinning hall for about 2000 students. The same company that provides food for Wheaton is the same that supplies food for Champlain. Both schools had very different dinning halls and experiences. however, I still found myself trying to get past the mass produced bland food that is created. One big thing that I remember is their soft serve ice cream machine. I would mix half of a plastics cup of soft serve ice cream with a half of plastic cup of milk. after mixing it together one has a milkshake! In addition, brownies and other sundae toppings could be added to make a a decent milkshake. When Wheaton introduced their soft serve machine in both Chase and Emerson I was very excited. The unfortunate discontinuation of the ice cream fridge in chase was an unknown compromise for me but I digress. One improvement that I think could be made to this amazing machine is the addition of other flavors. I recall the excitement of having a mint milkshake on days were mint soft serve was offered.
         Stated in a response on my first post, innovation directed toward sandwiches has influenced me to show my creations. As sandwiches are one of my favorite foods, through its ability to be anything. Every sandwich is a blank canvas that can go in any direction. I took the same approach with sandwiches as I did with stir fry scouring both Chase and Emerson for the best ingredients. Through trial and error I have come up with some great ideas. These are just a couple of them:

The first sandwich is a fried egg sandwich with provolone, turkey, and cucumbers on an English muffin. Cucumbers seem to be an odd addition to this breakfast food, but don't hate it til you try it. With the saltiness of the deli meat and cheese it tastes pretty good. Through trial and error I have found that I prefer this sandwich on a bagel as it balances everything out a little better. Lastly the cucumbers and turkey add a little more nutrition to a often unhealthy food. The second sandwich is my favorite and one of my best finds. Now there is nothing really special about this sandwich other than the bread. During diner they serve fresh bread which is perfect for sandwiches. Cutting two tick slices and a dash of butter on the outside sides causes a nice toasting of the bread when placed in the panini press. The addition of a good slice of bread can change a sandwich and definitely makes Wheatons dinning hall sandwiches better. What are your sandwich ideas? What can you make using nothing from the deli line?