Italian American Christmas, Food, Family and Love

Merry Christmas to all my Italian American Girl readers, hope you all had an amazing holiday and I'm looking forward to a prosperous and healthy New Year.  This year for Christmas, as we always do my mother and sister baked and cooked some our favorite dishes. I posted a lot of our cookies and traditional cookies on my Facebook page here -- Italian American Girl  My sister is becoming quite the baker with her cookies, which resemble those of my mother's.  My mother fried her traditional zeppole, which obviously are a staple every year.  With each passing year, I get more and more sentimental about the traditions and maintaining the recipes and 'ways' that my mother always did.  Thank God, my sister is the skilled one when it comes to cooking and baking, but for me it's about the company, serving the food and always the right coffee.   This year, we had all of our get togethers, accompanied by Lavazza coffee.  Usually, we have espresso, since they've come out with their new drip coffees, I'm able to offer cafe Americano to my friends as well, who are not so versed in espresso.  There is nothing like the aroma and consistency of this coffee.   If you want to venture into a new coffee for the New Year, I highly recommend.  You can shop Lavazza here http://www.shoplavazza.com  

**This post was sponsored by Lavazza** 

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Lavazza Passionista, Making Your Best Coffee Recipe!

Post by Italian American Girl.

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Keurig K-Cup Coffee Machine and Lavazza Drip Coffee Giveaway

It's that time of year, when we have an exciting giveaway for one lucky Italian American Girl reader.  The team at Lavazza are presenting a fabulous giveaway, which includes this really cool and super chic Keurig K-Cup Mini, which if you haven't had coffee yet from a Keurig you're missing an amazing little coffee machine.   Lavazza is providing one lucky reader a chance to win this machine along with the Lavazza drip coffees for K-Cup version, which is fantastic!    

In order to enter to win this cool little machine and Lavazza k-cups in drip coffee versions, please comment below with your first and last name and tell me why or how Italian coffee has impacted your life.   I know for example coffee is the main component in my life either when I'm entertaining guests, go to a party and wait for that perfect cup of coffee, maybe it's a comfort and gets you through a tough day,  reminds you of your family, a time to get together and share a warm moment with a friend or family,  what does your coffee stand for?  I will choose one person by September 8, 2014 and announce the winner's name on the blog and Italian American Girl Facebook page.  

To learn more about the new Lavazza Drip Coffee line and K-Cup Versions you can shop for it here:

http://www.shoplavazza.com

Keurig K-Cup Machine 

Lavazza Drip Coffees - K-Cups

** This is a sponsored post by Lavazza and the giveaway will be provided by Lavazza and mailed direct to the winner, Italian American Girl will only be responsible for the promotion of the giveaway and choosing a lucky IAG reader. ***

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Italian Summer Dinner Recipe - Roasted Italian Chicken, Organic Peas, Followed By Lavazza Coffee

Author - Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar
'Extra Virgin'

Summertime is the best time to experiment with cooking especially since you can use fresh ingredients from your garden or farmers market.  This month I decided to try a Tuscan version of roasted chicken, which myself and mother made. We used a version of the recipe from the new cookbook from Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar called 'Extra Virgin.' 
In the book, they actually grill the chicken with a lemon juice, rosemary, arugula combination. 

My version was a roasted chicken lightly brushed with olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper --really quite simple.  

For a side dish, my mother peeled fresh peas from the garden and fried them with caramelized onions, along with sliced potatoes roasted with the chicken. 

Here's the recipe - Roasted Chicken with Fresh Peas

Wash chicken thoroughly. Put a drop of lemon in water, cut pieces of chicken to liking.  In roasting pan, put 3 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add your salt, pepper, or chicken spices of your choice. Add onions and potatoes in cubes next to chicken.  Put in oven at 450 degrees for more than 30 minutes.  Turn with wooden spoon about two times to get potatoes and onions roasted evenly. 

For the peas - 

Cut small pieces of medium onions, cook for about one minute.  Add peas, cook for about 10 minutes more, gently move in pan about two times till peas are cooked.  Cover the pan while you wait to serve peas.

To end our perfect meal, we have coffee once we've digested, we've been trying the new Lavazza drip coffees, our version to try was the Perfetto blend, which you can find here http://www.shoplavazza.com/ 

The coffee is our end to our perfect meal, if you want a great coffee to try and know that Lavazza is great in espresso, get the new drip coffee, my favorite now. 

You can follow Lavazza on Twitter as well for some delicious ways to accompany new drip coffees and traditional Lavazza products.  

***This post was sponsored by Lavazza *** 

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