T-90 Project: Days 80-77

I'm confusing myself. It's technically day 75 of the T-90 Project and I'm only up to day 80 on the blog. With a little hustle I'll try to bring you up to speed on the past few days. And I thought I was doing OK here...

Day 80: We all (except my brother T-) celebrated Easter in Sag Harbor. Our custom is to eat our big Easter feast on Saturday night, so we can all return to our respective corners of the northeast by a decent hour Sunday. Who wants Easter dinner after Easter brunch anyway? Not me.

Mom and Dad ordered a ham and since I'm no longer eating meat, they insisted I come up with a new vegetable dish to make. I was excited about the prospect of introducing a new veggie dish to the family, and I immediately thought of Mrs. Carebear. Carebear's mom made me several holiday meals over the course of my college days, in addition to serving some of the best tailgating food in the South. I recalled a squash dish she made for us at Thanksgivings and any other time I requested it. When I mentioned the idea to my mom, she loved it and even added, "Ask her for the key lime recipe too. You loved that as well!" I'd forgotten about Mrs. Carebear's key lime pie, but e-mailed Carebear and received a swift response from her and her mom.

What better way to contribute to the T-90 Project than by cooking something new! I totally deserved it too after running nearly 16 miles to Sagg Main Beach and back for marathon training.

Recipe for Mrs. Carebear's Squash Casserole

2 1/2 to 3 lbs. yellow squash (or you can use zucchini or half and half of each)
3/4 of a stick of butter or margarine
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 of a small bag of Pepperidge Farm herb stuffing
1 egg, beaten
8 ozs. sharp cheddar, grated
salt and pepper to taste

Slice squash and cook in small amount of water (lid on pan) until soft enough to be mashed. Drain well, mash with potato masher, add butter, mix until butter is melted. Add onion, stuffing, egg and about 2/3 of the cheese. Mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour into greased casserole dish and top with rest of cheese. Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes.

I think a few heads turned when they saw me mashing up soggy squash. I have to admit I was a little concerned too. But man, once this dish sat in the oven and came out, it was knock-your-socks-off good. It may be the new veggie dish of choice at all our family gatherings. I just finished the last Tupperware of leftovers today and I'm feeling a little verklempt.

Below you'll find her key lime pie. She noted it's from The Blue Point, one of her family's favorite restaurants in Duck, N.C.


You can either make your own graham cracker crust from the recipe on the side of the graham cracker crumb box, or you can buy a ready made graham crust. If I make it myself, I do it in a 9-inch springform pan.

5 egg yolks, beaten well
1 can Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
4 ounces key lime juice
1 tablespoon grated lime zest (2 limes)

Mix all ingredients together well. Pour into crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes, turn pan 180 degrees and bake 12 more minutes. Cool, then refrigerate to chill. Top with sweetened whipped cream to serve.

This was another crowd pleaser. Thank you so much, Mrs. Carebear.


Dad always puts me in charge of setting the table so I snapped a cute photo showing off Mom's cute placemats and my mad napkin-folding skills.

After dinner my uncle and I went to go see "The Last Station." It was a fabulous movie and I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in Russian history, literature or extremely good acting.

Day 79: The new first for me on Easter Sunday was breakfast at Pierre's in Bridgehampton. What a treat. We had the entire place to ourselves, we enjoyed some scrumptious plates and I snuck away with breakfast snacks for the week: croissants and pain au chocolats. Our server was a bit on the out-of-it side (despite the entire place being empty - god knows what happened when the place filled up with its 400 reservations she told us they were expecting) , but the food was solid.

Day 78: I read through one of my favorite "what's happening in New York" sites NewYorkology and decided to head to the MoMA to see the Tim Burton exhibit. Little did I know it's nearly impossible to get tickets to it unless you show up at 10:30 in the morning. Not gonna happen on my schedule, unless I call in sick. And if I do that it'll be for the Yankees, not art. With my free ticket (courtesy of ABC), I meandered in and out of hallways and exhibits. The most mesmerizing was the performance artist Marina Abramovic. I'd read plenty of articles about her and I was in awe as I walked around her several times on the museum mezzanine, staring into space and sitting there still as the David for two and a half months. I wonder what happens when the museum closes. Does she stay there? Unreal. Other works of note: South Africa's William Kentridge's Five Themes and Picasso's Theme and Variations. I was too late for Monet's Water Lilies. They shut the door on me, though not the end of the world since I spent a weekend at his home in Giverny.

After visiting MoMA I headed to The Modern. I love the bar there. I had a lovely bartender Antonio who fed me delicious cocktails (Girovita and Cremant d'Alsace) and endless bowls of popcorn.

I waited for NovaCat to get off work and we walked west towards our respective apartments. She felt like a beer so we stopped in none other than Hooters. Too many firsts for me in one day - I need to spread them out! It was surprisingly a great space and our waitress was super friendly and not overwhelmingly busty. Great fun and a great sports bar (though the food I ordered - salad and fries - were struggling).

Day 77: It was an exciting day of firsts on Tuesday. I had FTDC at Diner in Brooklyn (something on the schedule) and I spoke to Katie Couric on Twitter (something not on the schedule). Let me start with the latter.

At about 8a.m. I Tweeted the following: "Looks like @katiecouric picked the wrong time to go to haiti: http://bit.ly/bbcjsX." I was simply inferring it was poor/unlucky timing on her and her producers part to go to Haiti when the story of the day was in West Virginia.

Within 10 minutes I'd received the following direct message from @katiecouric: "why is that?"

I died and immediately shrieked in the newsroom. My boss advised, "Don't you dare start a s***storm with Katie Couric on Twitter."

Relax, people. By default I like Katie. She's a University of Virginia alumna, like myself, which means I have to like her.

I consulted a couple of friends in the biz and they thought nice was the way to go since I have ABC all over my profile. BYOWino suggested I write, "While Haiti was a terrible tragedy, the hearts and prayers of the nation are with W. Va. today, not Haiti."

After I chatted with Winette, I went with the oh-so-friendly, non-combative approach:
"As fan/fellow wahoo, while Haiti is awful tragedy, your ontheground coverage in wva will be missed." It's all I had space for. I figured that would be it. But she wrote back YET AGAIN!

"Thanks...I feel bad missing it, its awful but the enormity of this tragedy is really hard to fathom so I appreciate being here!"

It was both stunning and hilarious. Some friends wanted me to engage her further, but I just decided to let it rest. If nothing else, Katie Couric now has Mona's Apple on the brain and maybe she won't ever forget it.

Now moving onto dinner. Diner was good, not excellent, but good. Not worth the trip again, but worth the trip the first time around. I loved the idea of the servers writing the menus on the tables (boy, were they versed in the dishes), though a little cumbersome if you're hungry and just want to order when you sit down (like I did). The cocktails were a huge disappointment. We've had some pretty award-winning cocktails at FTDC and these were just not up to par. I even traded one of mine for a bland champagne cocktail and frankly, couldn't wait to switch to wine. The chocolate cake for dessert was downright disappointing.

Tonight (day 76) I'm meeting friends for cocktails, but where? Nobody knows. I need to get on it.