Happy Anniversary 15 years of Italian American Girl!

Another year its now 15 years from when I started the Italian American Girl web site.   Facebook was just starting, Twitter just launched and no Instagram then, my site took off so quickly just because of our tight knit Italian American community.  The support I received from my fellow Italian American friends from all over the country and in different parts of the world was amazing.  Till this day, we still have the same connections, its pretty amazing.  Being Italian American is definitely a very unique experience, I had the best of both worlds, growing up Italian American in the USA.   I think in today's climate of heavy immigration discussions, we are experiencing a new wave of immigrants who may or may not come into the country through the proper channels, but its also a severe economic and dangerous climate in the world.  When my father came over from Italy he was the oldest of his family expected to support the family after his father died in World War II, my father's uncle worked to get him to the USA to help him, everyone in Italy was poor, he knew if my father stayed there he would not make it to support an entire family.   My father is in the USA now close to 60 years, came over on a ship the whole nine...  true immigrant experience, yes my father is now almost 90 years old.   

Living in the USA and living the American dream is a challenge, the economic climate for most people is difficult, and if you don't speak the language even harder and you are treated badly, in my opinion.   America is about a dream, its about working hard.  If my father didn't come here and work as hard as he did, I would not have or do any of the things I've experienced or are able to have and enjoy.  I thank my father for everything he's done for me and my entire family.  Thank you for continuing to support my blog, my brand, my experiences; without you and our community we can't thrive.  Grazie a tutti.  xoxo 

~Margaret  Tweet

Summer Italian tomato salad

 First tomato salad from the garden. I added a chopped zucchini, tomatoes, red onion, basil, olive oil and a pinch of salt. Delicious and healthy.

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Italian Meatball Recipe

 Italian Meatball Recipe:

• 1 1/2 cup of bread crumbs ( this can be home made from toasted Italian bread or store bought) 
• 1 pound of ground meat, (you can substitute any meat, we prefer Turkey 100% lean.)
• 4 oz. grated cheese Pecorino and Parmigiana
• 2 Tsp of salt
• 1 Tsp of pepper
• 2 Eggs 
• 10 leafs chopped parsley 
• 2 cloves of garlic 
• 1 or 1/2 cup of water - depending on the quality of your bread crumbs. 

Mix all together, form balls (secret to keeping them nice and together, drip some warm water onto your palm of your hands as your rolling the balls.)  Then once you have your balls ready, fry them in a pan of very hot vegetable oil or canola oil. (some people like to substitute oils, we find this works best for us.)  Flip them till they are golden brown as you can see from today's meatball making.   

If you  have any questions, feel free to email me at margaret@italianamericangirl.com 

Happy Sunday! 

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Making Black Olive Bread - Pane Alle Olive Nere

Well, it's time for a new post and I wanted to share an amazing baked bread that my brother Santo made, its a black olive bread, Italian style.  I believe many Italians make this in many variations as we like to experiment and also be simple with our staple dinner element.  

My brother has since baked a few loaves since this original loaf pictured here, I believe he wanted to perfect it and it almost seemed to get better each time he baked it.  

Now, once he made it, we had a chance to warm up the bread and enjoy with it with extra virgin olive oil and red pepper flakes.  

The next day I cut a slice and made a very glamorous avocado toast, which was amazing.  Pictured to the right I also made a plain authentic pizza type snack.  My brother followed the exact recipe from Orsara Recipes linked here: Black Olive Bread  Leave a comment if you have a good bread recipe to share! 

 

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A Trip Down Memory Lane - The Italian American Girl Story

A little trip down memory lane and retelling the story of why @italianamericangirl is a brand. I started the Italian American Girl blog back in 2008 when social media just came out and blogging was the trend then along with the new sites Twitter and Youtube. I was searching for a way to stay connected to my first generation Italian American friends and acquaintances so we could share stories of upbringing, family and culture. 

Here we are over 14 years later and now the Italian American community has grown online so much due to platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Also, no one was calling us influencers, myself and few others on here who I am still very close with know who we are and were just being authentic and enjoying the connections. The moral of the story is: it wasn’t about numbers, or influence but about connecting and bringing awareness to our culture, upbringing and values. Leave a ♥️ if you agree.  What's your Italian American story? 

Ciao. Xoxo ~Margaret

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I'm Italian and Yes, I Have Curly Hair. Part 3

 

So, you're probably asking right about now, why am I writing about curly hair? Just this week alone my blogs have been about politics and serious topics...well today I want to talk about curly hair. I get tons of emails all the time about yes, my hair.

I have to say, I am very lucky to have super curly hair that's somewhat manageable. There was a time when I didn't know how to style it and always felt like odd girl out..while all my friends had their gorgeous straight hair.

Growing up with curly, frizzy hair always made me feel like a bit of an outcast. During middle school, teasing and spraying hair was pretty big. I could never do that, because if I teased I ended up looking like a poodle who got electrocuted. It was hard.

Then, in my later years in high school, I started to get the hang of it. It isn't till now, that I really love my hair and can style it with super products available for curly, ethnic hair. Yes, whether we like it or not, its "ethnic." If you research the curly hair characteristics and cultures of where people have curly hair, well..you guessed it..I'm in that percentile.

I guess I am the owner of the fitting characteristics of a Southern Italian woman. To add to the curly hair, not only is it hard just to figure out what to do with it, but in a business world such I am in daily..its another job trying to figure out how to fit in with the business types without my hair going wild.

Let me know below if you have a favorite product to use to manage our hair. 

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Italian American Authors and Italian Themed Books 2023 List

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Back in 2009 I started this post with the latest Italian American authors and Italian themed books due to the large amount of inquiries I was receiving to either review or give recommendations.  I thought what better way to help support our community than creating a top list of Italian themed book and Italian American authors. Click on each of the books to get more information to the individual books. 

-Cafe Firenze- Fabio Viviani & Jacapo Falleni

-The Youngest Son- Oreste Leroy Salerni
-Secrets From My Tuscan Kitchen --Judy Witts Francini

-Con Amore- Janice Therese Mancuso

-La Bella Lingua- Dianne Hales

-Never Trust A Thin Cook-- Eric Dregni

-The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken- Laura Schenone

-Old World Daughter New World Mother-- Maria Laurino

-Midnight in Rome-- Michael H. Gyulai

-Harlot's Sauce-- Patricia Volonakis Davis

-My Cousin The Saint- Justin Catanoso

-Searching for Pemberley and The Second Date--Mary Lydon Simonsen

-Italian Heritage Books- By Leon J. Radomile

-101 Glam Girl Ways to an Ultra Chic Lifestyle: A Cheeky Book with Tidbits of Advice for a Glamorous Lifestyle -- Dawn Del Russo

-Gravy Wars: By Lorraine Ranalli

-The Secret Diary of an Italian Girl - Dosi Controneo

If you are an Italian American author and would like to be included on this list, please send an email an to margaret@italianamericangirl.com - Also, if you are on this list from 2009, and would like something updated, please also send an email. 

Thank you. 

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