Slashfood

St. Patrick's Day cooking is easy if you're a food-coloring addict. Green milk, green oatmeal, green butter, green cottage cheese -- these and everything else can be greened up with a few flicks of that little plastic jar. But what if you don't like using artificial stuff from little plastic jars? Then you need to turn to nature. Luckily, nature seems to favor the Irish: there are tons of healthy green-ifiers out there.

To make green mashed potatoes (that taste exactly the same as regular potatoes): stir in half a cup of green peas that you've puréed with a tablespoon of milk. If you use frozen peas, they should be defrosted but don't need to be cooked.

Green bread crumbs for chicken: In a food processor, pulse 4 slices of toast with 1/2 cup chopped parsley until you've got, yes, green crumbs. Toss this mixture together with 4 ounces grated fresh Parmesan and 1 crushed clove garlic.

A labor advocacy group has transformed a cargo truck, similar to the vehicle in which two Florida tomato growers kept their enslaved work crews captive, into a mobile museum.

"We're touring the state to educate people about the persistence of slavery in the agriculture industry here in Florida," explains Marc Rodrigues, a member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

The 24-foot truck houses exhibits chronicling the history of slavery, from the government-sanctioned system that thrived after European colonization to 20th-century sharecropping. The chronology offers little respite for abolitionists: The timeline ends with the seven confirmed forced labor cases the Department of Justice has documented over the past decade.

"For a lot of people, it's been a really eye-opening experience," Rodrigues says. "I've seen people come out of the museum with tears in their eyes."

Looking for the grape leaves here? By the time this grilled salmon is served, the leaves have done their job and gone. Blogger anotherpintplease uses grape leaves -- which he soaks in water for 20 minutes -- to wrap the fish as it goes on the grill (you can see some of these little bundles in the photo's background). They help maintain the salmon's moisture and flavor when it meets the flames. Once the fish is cooked, unwrap the package, toss the charred leaves, crack a Belgian beer and eat.

The recipe, which calls for a stuffing of walnuts, garlic, dill and cilantro, with lemon juice, is adapted from Stephen Raichlen's good-humored and always instructive The Barbecue Bible. And if you actually want to eat your grape leaves, try this traditional Greek recipe for stuffing them.

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While the urge to guzzle Guinness on St. Patrick's Day may be overpowering, there's no need to follow the herd -- or subject yourself to (gasp!) green beer. These 10 stouts are every bit the flavorful alternative. And yes, if you ask nicely, we'll even draw a shamrock in the beer's foam.

Bell's Kalamazoo Stout:
The marvelous Michigan stout pours coal-black, with an aroma of roasted malt and a licorice-like flavor blended with bittersweet chocolate.

Rogue's Shakespeare Stout:
Inky with a fat brown head, Shakespeare tastes like mocha coffee reimagined as beer.

Sierra Nevada Stout:
This affordable, widely available stout doesn't disappoint, providing a creamy body with roasted bitterness and a little hint of hops.

The sons of celebrity chef Paula Deen hope their new magazine will inspire a lot of good old-fashioned home cooking.

The quarterly created by Jamie and Bobby Deen and published by Hoffman Media just launched its first issue -- which features almost 100 recipes. And while Deen Bros. Good Cooking aims to get men into the kitchen, it also wants to bring families together around the dinner table.

"The recession can have some positive effects," Jamie Deen, 42, told Slashfood. "It's going to force people to not go out and eat fast food. We think eating at home is one of the first changes. Get everybody's feet back under the same table."

In that vein, the magazine he co-founded with his brother Bobby, 39, offers a series of simple recipes made with affordable, easy-to-find ingredients – like cheese and beer dip, Creole shrimp, pesto sirloin steak, shrimp and mushroom pasta, tilapia piccata and a grilled banana dessert.

"We're just showing people easy ways to cook good food that's good for you," Deen said. "We keep it real simple."

Three more companies are recalling foods that may have been contaminated with Salmonella-tainted hydrolyzed vegetable protein made by Las Vegas-based Basic Food Flavors.

Procter and Gamble is recalling Restaurant Cravers Cheeseburger and Family Faves Taco Night Pringles. Nestle Professional North America issued a recall for about 6,000 pounds of ready-to-eat bacon, and Ruiz Foods is recalling ready-to-eat beef, Food Safety News reported.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a massive recall of HVP products from Basic Food Flavors last week. HVP is a a salty and savory flavor enhancer used in many processed foods.

If you watched the Oscars on Sunday night, then you'll know that the The Cove won for Best Documentary for its unflinching expose of the Japanese coastal town of Taiji, where fishermen hunt and slaughter dolphins.

But the makers of the film have not finished uncovering marine abuse. According to the New York Times, the filmmakers (who include actor Fisher Stevens) initiated a sting operation on a Los Angeles restaurant (ironically called "The Hump") after hearing from friends that whale was on its menu.

Americans today tend to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with platefuls of Irish fare and pints of Irish stout, but the pseudo-Gaelic menu's actually a relatively recent addition to a holiday long marked by dyeing food green.

St. Patrick's been on the Irish calendar for more than 1,000 years, honoring the fifth century Brit who led the first full-scale Christian mission to the Emerald Isle. A resolutely religious occasion, the only treat associated with the celebration in Old Ireland was bacon and cabbage, since Lenten prohibitions on meat were waived for the holiday. Food and drink were such minor considerations that Irish law shuttered bars on St. Patty's Day through the 1970s.

The holiday acquired its jollity in the U.S., where Irish immigrants in 1762 began expressing their patriotism with raucous parades and parties. While a bigoted populace initially shunned the festivities, the sheer number of Americans with Irish roots spurred a 20th century surge in Irish-American political power and ancestral pride. By the 1930s, Americans of all backgrounds were joining in the Mar. 17 fun, cheering on parade participants and cooking holiday meals.