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Posted Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 12:38 pm in Blog.

For those of you who don’t already know, I am currently in Peru touring around with Oxfam. In February, 2009, I became an Ambassador to Oxfam- a great organization committed to “[help] people gain the hope, skills, and direction to create a new future.” It’s been a really great experience! If you can, check out Twitter to hear more about what has been going on! Here is what I did today:

3rd day in the Andes…about 1 hour from Cusco…  I visited a Quechean village….where they specialize in growing potatoes. They are also descendants of the Inca’s.

They grow over 1300 varieties of potatoes. They made us lunch and we had potatoes, simply boiled, that we peeled and then sprinkled w/ salt and topped w/ a lemony, herby (local herbs they grow..one being oregano) pesto like sauce (no cheese but they did add peanuts).

Fried potatoes topped w/ fresh oregano, corn and potatoes soup and a local jello like dessert made w/ a local fruit similar to passion fruit.

We then learned how they harvest the potatoes and how they are trying to adapt the different variety of potatoes to the ever changing climate of the Andes…b/c of global warming.

There are 4-5 thousand varieties of potatoes produced in the world and Peru produces 3200 of them. So if the ingenious farmers can no longer produce that will definitely affect there economy but it definitely affect our consumption!!

xo,

Giada

Posted Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 4:51 pm in Blog.

Message from Giada – Busy, Busy, Busy

Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed the last newsletter and have had time to explore the website! I have appreciated your feedback!

A lot has been happening in my life since my last newsletter. I had a photo shoot for my new book that should be coming out next spring; I started shooting and have almost completed season 3 of Giada at Home; and, I took a trip to Aspen, Colorado to participate in and enjoy the Aspen Food and Wine Festival!

It’s amazing how stressful a book shoot can be! I forgot how much work and time is put into making sure each shot looks perfect. We would play around with every aspect of the dishes- even something seemingly as meaningless as herb placement could throw off the balance of the entire photo. Luckily, I had a fantastic team of people helping to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible and I think we ended up with some really fantastic shots. I am very excited for this next book to come out!

Shooting Giada at Home is always a busy time for me. It’s amazing to think that we are able to shoot an entire season in just two months. You may not know this, but each half- hour long episode actually takes at least 14 hours of hard work to film (and that doesn’t include how long it takes to edit together!) Although shooting is very busy, it is also a lot of fun. Our crew is a small, close family. It’s great to be able to come back each season to familiar faces. I even have a few people on my crew that date back to the beginning of Everyday, Italian! I hope you will all enjoy season 3 as you have the previous seasons!

Aspen, like any Food and Wine Festival, is crazy but fun. Aspen was absolutely breathtaking. Don’t get me wrong, yes, we have the beautiful beaches, but the Aspen Mountains were so amazing. Everything was so green and lush. What really made this festival special to me is that I was able to enjoy it with Todd, my Aunt Raffy, Uncle Buzz, Eloisa (my sister) and Julian (my nephew). If any of you able to go to my demos, you would have been able to see me with them all on stage cooking some great dishes. It was so fun to cook with them all- especially little Julian, he was a riot!

At the end of July, we will be done filming. I have many exciting things coming up in the next couple months. I will be traveling to NYC to be on the today show throughout the next couple months which is always fun. In October, I will be participating in the NYC Food and Wine Festival. I also have an event coming up through OxFam, which is going to be something that I have never experienced. I’m nervous, but really eager.

I hope everyone had a great holiday. I will be writing again in a few months!

XO, Giada

Posted Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 1:06 pm in Blog.

The recipes from the “Father’s Day Party” episode of Giada at Home are now on the website!

Posted Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 3:43 pm in Blog.

Hi Everyone, I have received a lot of questions about the recipes from the “Pasta Party” episode of Giada at Home. They are now on the website under the recipe tab! Check them out! Enjoy.

Posted Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 6:07 pm in Blog.

Don’t miss my book signing at the William Sonoma in Pasadena, CA. The  store is located in The Commons at 142 S Lake Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. The book signing is Saturday May 2 from 12pm – 2pm. Make sure to purchase a ticket in advance by calling (626) 795-5045. Hope to see you then!!!

Posted Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 10:43 am in Blog.

Don’t Miss GIADA AT HOME Season 2 Premiere- Saturday April 4 at 1 pm!!

Posted Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 12:17 pm in Blog.

Hello everyone! I hope you enjoy this newsletter and the new website!

I’ve recently finished filming my second season of Giada at Home.  We had a long several months in production. January brought us buckets and buckets of rain (which we need desperately in California!), but the wet weather definitely meant gloomy days and some creative thinking in terms of shooting those outdoor scenes. I think we have a wonderful season 2 and I really hope that you’re enjoying the episodes from season 1. I’m currently working though on the recipes for Season 3. The work doesn’t ever really stop, but…

Now that I’m on hiatus, I’ve been able to catch up on life in general and spend tons of time with my daughter, Jade. The time has definitely flown by. It’s been really great to watch her crawl around – exploring her world! Although she’s almost one, no, she does not walk yet… I’ve been told it’s because her mom carries her around too much!!!

So, I’m planning Jade’s first birthday party. I can’t believe she’ll be a one year old in a couple weeks! I am thinking of incorporating animals in some way. Not yet clear on how this will play out, but I’m sure it’ll be interesting, and exciting. Perhaps even unpredictable if some live animals make their way into the mix. I’ll be sure to give you, or maybe even show you, a recap of how this all goes down.

On Saturday, March 21. Giada at Home will be airing an episode called “Art House.” It is a truly unique episode. It will be featuring a man named Darren Quinn. Darren is a close and dear friend of my husband, Todd and mine. He is a quadriplegic and an absolutely brilliant artist.  You have probably seen his beautiful “AMORE” painting in my house. So check out the episode on Saturday, I think you’ll really like it!

Finally, Easter is around the corner. For Italians, it’s one of the biggest holidays other than Christmas! I’m really excited to celebrate Jade’s first Easter. We are going to have a big family get- together. Jade will get to play with all her cousins and run around during our big Easter egg hunt (with my favorite chocolate Easter eggs of course!) Easter is also going to be the premier of the second season of Giada at Home. Look for the “Spring Fling” episode- so check it out!

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter! I will be writing again in June!

XO, Giada

Posted Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 3:34 pm in Blog.

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the new GiadaDeLaurentiis.com! You can now find recipes, menu ideas, and upcoming events, along with several other new features.

To keep up to date, please subscribe to my email newsletter, Facebook page, or Twitter profile.

Thanks,
Giada

Posted Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 6:42 pm in Blog.