"A Mighty Appetite" news and stories

I have found that the more storage space I have for the food, the more food I'll keep socked away. For example, we got a new refrigerator last summer. I was giddy with excitement when we bought it, thrilled that I would finally have a fridge that wasn't stuff to the gills. However, in very short order, it was just as packed with food as the previous fridge had been despite being a full 1/3 bigger.

Recently, I've been trying to be more diligent about using up the things we have instead of purchasing food on a whim, and this week, there are a number of home cooks and food bloggers specifically endeavoring to do the same thing. A Mighty Appetite's Kim O'Donnell is keeping things organized and she has more than 100 households across five countries participating in the Eat Down the Fridge Challenge (there's even a honor roll and a Facebook group devoted to the effort).

If you've got a number of things tucked away in your fridge, freezer and pantry, consider playing along this week and see how many meals you can make from the food that you already have.

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One of my favorite food bloggers, Kim O'Donnel from the Washington Post's A Mighty Appetite, has recently started an additional food blogging endeavor. She can now also be found writing about food over at Simply Stated::Food, the food blogging wing of Real Simple Magazine.

Already, I'm finding her new blogging gig helpful, as while I was planning on cooking up a hunk of corned beef for dinner tonight, in order to eat an appropriately festive St. Patrick's Day meal, I never managed to get to the store and buy one. However, earlier today she posted a recipe for Potato-Leek-Parsley Puree for all of us who missed the corned beef boat. This Irish-themed soup will keep you in sync with the holiday and give you the opportunity to eat a vividly green meal this evening (I have a feeling that kids with adventurous palates will love this one).

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Over the course of the next month and a half, most of us are going to be running around with a panicked glint in our eyes as we try to get everything done for the holidays. Food can be one of the most stressful aspects of this November-December stretch. Luckily Kim O'Donnel, the washingtonpost.com food blogger extraordinaire, recently wrote a cookbook to help us all come through the trials of holiday cooking with honors.

The book is called A Mighty Appetite for the Holidays: Kitchen Tricks for the Feasting Season and it is full of terrific tips, stories, techniques and recipes (you can buy it here). She offers advice on how to brine a turkey, gives a 7-day cooking timeline for Thanksgiving and also includes a section on what to cook if you find yourself alone on turkey day.

One of the recipes that jumped out at me from the book fits nicely into the alternative side dish category we've been talking about lately. It's for a Parsnip-Potato Mash and seems to be a good way to mix up your regular old potato mashers. The recipe is after the jump.

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