A Bit About Me

Hi! I’m Laureen- most commonly misspelled as Lorraine, Lauren or in one instance written in a story book given to me on my 8th birthday, Doreen. I started baking and cooking in late 2005 when my brother started staying with me in Melbourne where I studied for five wonderful years that went by all too quickly.

I started this site in early 2007 as a way of combining my love for writing with a spot of food photography- plus there were only so many emails raving about a particular dish or baked good with photos attached i could send to my friends- as well as to share recipes and my culinary experiences with the rest of the world. Simply put, this site mainly holds a collection of the better recipes i’ve tried, my thoughts on them as well as the occasional culinary misses.

My most humbling experience in the kitchen has got to be the time i cooked Lemon Chicken. I was incredibly excited about the prospects of creating that delish plate of deep fried chicken coated in thick, sweet lemon sauce i’ve always enjoyed in eateries. Alarm bells probably should have started going off in my head when the recipe called for a generous amount of lemon juice and barely anything else. Long story short, the result was a very unpalatable chicken dish so sour it would make even the most hardcore Warhead fans pucker. Then of course there was the time i used white vinegar in place of (a rather large quantity of) apple cider vinegar..

Pizza, ice cream, peanut butter, chocolate and alfalfa are my top five favourite food in that order. Conversely, you can’t pay me enough to eat raw, whole tomatoes, ginseng and anything herbal. I will however, at a very modest fee, polish your plate of vegetables (sans said tomatoes) off for you.

Bread is by far my absolute favourite thing to make. I love how unhurried the whole bread making process is and the magic that happens in turning some yeast, flour, water and sugar into a much loved food staple around the world. Having recently read the Bread Bible, a bit of that magic has dissipated but all the scientific stuff that occurs with the formation of each loaf is simply fascinating. Simply nothing beats the aroma of a freshly baked, toasty warm loaf of bread wafting through the house.

~May 2008

Questions or just wanna say hi? Email me at thecoffeesnob-at-gmail.com or add me on Twitter (@laurdoubleen)!