Kirstie's Home Made

adelight

I love her crafts, especially when she made lamp shades ages ago as it's something i didn't know was possible but would love to do! I love some of her ideas even though her raw materials are always quite expensive, would be nice if someone did a show on the big time cheap. Basically, a show based on this forum

FairyPrincessk

Just on my tea break and I've got to weigh in on this.

Personally, I sort of wish they would make the show without Kirstie. While most of that is probably just me (I like to refer to her as Kirstie Allslop) I think she plays more of the ditsy dillitante then is necessary. I agree that getting expert help for an amateur competition is cheating. I also feel that she should be showcasing more crafts that don't involve a large outlay of expenses (i.e. a Bernina, or some of the things she highlighted in the last series). I think the decoupage craft and the rings were on the right track-minimal investment in materials and very approachable. However, I'd love to see more things that were useful. What am I going to do with a decoupaged bird? What about decoupaging old laminate furniture that has seen better days? Or making a fruit bowl? I think if she really wanted to promote crafting she would make far more of an effort to talk about the process, utility and satisfaction than about winning awards and striving for perfection. As the show stands I always start out enthusiastic and then come away a little disheartened.

Seakay

Pennylane wrote: »

I would never buy any cakes from Kirstie after I'd seen her mixing up her scone mix with that scarlet nail polish. Her hands were right in there and made me :eek::eek:.

Mind you Jennifer Paterson (moterbike riding half of Two Fat Ladies) always had scarlet nails and said that it was fine because if it did chip you could easily spot the offending article and fish it out.

and these days you can get nail varnish that's sort of bonded on and lasts for weeks

That said I can't watch Kirstie in anything other than LLL - she annoyed me so much in the first Home Made series that I only watched a couple of episodes

Mrs_Bogroll

I have to smile at the comments about nail polish. People without bright red nails may just be wearing clear or very natural coloured polish. What does rile with me is when I see people wearing rings...and yes that includes a wedding band...who put their hands into food to mix it. I always thought that rings were known hiding places for bacteria and the only sure way to have truly clean hands is to remove jewellery and nail polish and then wash with soap and hot water.

IMO C4 has put enough detail into this series to whet a person's appetite for crafts, baking etc. There is loads of information freely available for anyone who wants to give it a go. The episodes aren't long enough to go into intricate detail but they do give a general idea of what crafts & baking are like.

Pennylane

Seakay wrote: »

Mind you Jennifer Paterson (moterbike riding half of Two Fat Ladies) always had scarlet nails and said that it was fine because if it did chip you could easily spot the offending article and fish it out.

and these days you can get nail varnish that's sort of bonded on and lasts for weeks

That said I can't watch Kirstie in anything other than LLL - she annoyed me so much in the first Home Made series that I only watched a couple of episodes

I don't want to keep harping on about the red nails BUT Kirstie was saying she was taking this deadly seriously and KNEW what exacting standards she had to live up to. She got experts in to tutor her in her baking skills and the end results were for the judges consumption (not for her own family). Why spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar (as they say;)) ?

Jennifer doodah was seen as an eccentric cook and was sort of "chuck it all in and give it a good old stir" and she wasn't facing judges as Kirstie was.

elisebutt65

I use latex gloves when doing pastry, not cos I don't want to take off my varnish or hygiene, but because I hate the ooky feeling of pastry under my nails (shudder)

I thought her card was a bit pants tbh. Like the judge said she thought it was a junior entry. Lol.

I might invest in some ring findings and a quill thing now though. Looks fun and I wonder if a touch of varnish would make them more durable?

LJM

elisebutt65 wrote: »

I use latex gloves when doing pastry, not cos I don't want to take off my varnish or hygiene, but because I hate the ooky feeling of pastry under my nails (shudder)

I thought her card was a bit pants tbh. Like the judge said she thought it was a junior entry. Lol.

I might invest in some ring findings and a quill thing now though. Looks fun and I wonder if a touch of varnish would make them more durable?

i want to give them a go with fabric im sure this would work too

valk_scot

Pennylane wrote: »

I would never buy any cakes from Kirstie after I'd seen her mixing up her scone mix with that scarlet nail polish. Her hands were right in there and made me :eek::eek:. Same with tying her hair back - yuk, it would have been great TV though if a judge had found a long, glossy black hair in their slice of Carribbean fruit cake.

The one that makes my skin crawl is people preparing food without taking their rings off. There's a huge amount of dirt and crud gets stuck under rings and handwashing does nothing to remove this unless you take your rings off to wash underneath. Anyway, who wants scone mix and meat juices etc stuck in their jewelry? Nail polish would be sterile enough but not extensions or tips, which come into the same class as rings imho.

As to tying hair back while cooking that's just basic hygiene, same as washing your hands before preparing food. And if you've got long nail tips, you need to use a nail brush to get any crud out from under them too. Surely everyone knows to do this? Please tell me there's no-one reading this that preps food with unwashed hands?

Pennylane

valk_scot wrote: »

The one that makes my skin crawl is people preparing food without taking their rings off. There's a huge amount of dirt and crud gets stuck under rings and handwashing does nothing to remove this unless you take your rings off to wash underneath. Anyway, who wants scone mix and meat juices etc stuck in their jewelry? Nail polish would be sterile enough but not extensions or tips, which come into the same class as rings imho.

As to tying hair back while cooking that's just basic hygiene, same as washing your hands before preparing food. And if you've got long nail tips, you need to use a nail brush to get any crud out from under them too. Surely everyone knows to do this? Please tell me there's no-one reading this that preps food with unwashed hands?[/QUOTE]

Sadly, as some earlier posts on this thread indicate there are people who think that basic hygiene in the kitchen doesn't matter.

If I visit any cafe, pub or restaurant which looks grubby or the food arrives with dirty cutlery or on chipped plates, I just walk out and never visit it again. Same with staff who come to serve you and stand there itching their nose or picking at their nails while they wait for you to place your order. I just leave.

Any

How the hell did we get from not tying hair back did we get to not washing hands before cooking????????????

This is getting ridiculous. No one ever said that.