free cooking demo, lecture and open house - oh my!

on the second wednesday of each month, the natural epicurean (located at 1701 toomey road, at casa de luz) hosts a free cooking demonstration from a senior student and a lecture entitled 'how food affects your health and emotions'. past cooking demonstrations have included saag paneer spanakopita, picture perfect pecan pie, the ultimate birthday cake and mochi-rella sticks. it's all vegan, it's all natural and it's usually mindblowingly delicious. recipes are given out during the demo... and did i mention that it's all FREE?

this month's is june 11th and marissa castello, a senior student at the school will be presenting her recipe conversion for 'edamame succotash'. if neither of those words mean anything to you, it's all the more reason to come down and try it out!

you can register/sign up on eventbrite:

http://www.eventbrite.com/org/58452322?s=1

also, rosa, our wonderful student coordinator is starting regular open houses for prospective students interested in checking out the school and getting more information. these open houses will also be on the second wednesday of each month and rosa will be available to answer any of your questions, give you a tour of the campus, introduce you to current students and help you with filling out your application! ;)

austin is wonderful

... and those of you who aren't blessed enough to live in this amazing city may not realize just how wonderful it is. i've heard time and time again from people who live here how austin is a very 'green' city and virtually 'recession-proof' and well, there's actual data backing up these claims.

in a recent survey/study conducted by popular science magazine, ranking cities on criteria including electricity, transportation, green living and recycling/green perspective, austin ranked in the top ten greenest cities in the united states and the greenest city in texas. austin ranks highest in the recycling/green perspective category with nearly a perfect score. surely, there's room for improvement in other areas, but these issues are actively being addressed by capital metro's efforts for increased ridership and austin energy's greenchoice program.

us news and world reports has also called austin one of the top ten green cities to retire in. these polls put austin in the company of such great cities as portland, chicago, and albuquerque.

austin is also considered by forbes magazine to be one of the top ten most 'recession-proof' cities in the country with its low unemployment rates, affordable housing prices and a growing tech sector.

with all these factors, i couldn't imagine that you'd want to live anywhere else. :)

Register Online for Classes!

Coming soon, you'll be able to register and pay for Natural Epicurean classes online! I'm working on getting the schedule for the rest of the year up on our Eventbrite site, which you can check out here.

There will be a small fee for signing up for classes through the website, but it's quicker and easier than calling in the office and you can do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Enjoy!

Student Demo: Saag Paneer Phyllo Bites

This Wednesday at 6pm, I'll be doing a demonstration before the free lecture on my Saag Paneer Phyllo Bites. This recipe combines the flaky, light pastry of spanakopita with a classic hearty North India saag paneer. Everything will be vegan and everything will be delicious!

Join us and learn how to make this impressive and incredibly easy party appetizer. If the group is small enough, we may even do some hands on work! ;)

For more information on our monthly free cooking demonstration and lectures, visit our website and click on the 'Events' link.

Vacation!

Rosa (student coordinator) and Winnie (marketing coordinator) will be out of town this week. If you need anything, please contact Karen (outreach and operations coordinator) in the store - (512) 476-2276.

Karen's Promotion

As of today, Karen Gifford, our wonderful and always helpful store clerk, is now the Operations and Outreach Coordinator. She will be using her years of organizational and community building skills to manage the Natural Epicurean stores (both Casa de Luz and Seton Williamson Good Health Commons locations), develop new community-based volunteer opportunities and in general, do awesome things for the school. Thank you, Karen for all your hard work and we all hope you flourish in this position!

New Website is Up!

After a recent and unfortunately timed computer crash (are they ever fortunately timed?), I'm back up and running and have made some huge strides. The Natural Epicurean now has a brand spanking new website, complete with an events and class calendar, a cleaner navigation system and a lovely carrot flower banner. Check us out!

www.naturalepicurean.com

Also, please do let me know if there are any errors on the site or if you have a suggestion!

winnie at naturalepicurean dot com