Quilting and Baking

Today was a good day.  I needed that.  I spent the day ironing (quilting fabric only, not clothes, oh my!!), and choosing fabric, and then actually doing some machine quilting. Bliss. Good for the soul.  I do love quilting. I love making quilts, and  deciding what fabrics to use,and  looking at other peoples quilts, but most of all,  the feel of quilting...for me it is pure and  simple joy.  I love the texture. The simplest quilt can still be so gorgeous when you can feel and see  all those little bumps and ripples...ahhh. I also feel a quilt is not done until it is washed. That is when it is finished being  born...the texture, both by  touch and visually, comes to life and it is all good...  Anyway,  I can't show you what I quilted today because it has to be a secret for another week or two. 

When I am feeling stressed, there are two ways I know to calm myself. For me,  that would be sewing or baking.  The  storm (my previous post) caused me a lot of stress.  It was a scary weekend, but on Monday, the wind finally went away.
I was still feeling upset that day, but too shaky to sew.  So, I decided to cook. Sewing and cooking are both good therapy for whatever life brings...trust me on that.

My dear friend De  knows  I make my own bread.  She passed on this link a few weeks back.  It tells how to bake bread in a slow cooker.  Since it is summer and hot and humid, I have no desire to turn the oven on these days, so I decided to try it.  I  made my usual bread recipe, tore off a sheet of baking paper, shaped the dough, gave it a few slashes with the knife.....(because I like how it looks)

 

I set the baking paper and bread dough in the slow cooker. I set my phone to alarm 45 minutes later.

It was not done yet. Mine took one hour, 15 minutes.  Here it is, wrong side up. The bottom is golden.

Here it is top side up.  There might already be some missing from the right,even though I tried to hide that by the angle.... Who can resist warm, fresh homemade bread??

My thoughts:  The bread is golden on the bottom. It came out moist and perfectly cooked.  The top is light, but the author suggests browning it if you feel the need. I prefer my bread light anyway.  This will be my new best way to bake bread. No hot oven on, no dishes to wash after....Perfect! The spread is hummus....I soaked some chickpeas to make chickpea cookies  and did extra so I could have enough to make hummus too.  Oh yum.  This is good therapy.  debbie