Impending Beef Stew and teasing my tastebuds that wish Friday were now.

I have all the ingredients at home to make savory beef stew:
Beef.
Mushrooms.
Carrots.
Peas.
Onions.
A crockpot.

Everything, minus the red wine you throw in at the last hour of cooking. I like to use red wine that is much too expensive to cook with, but that I can justify as being "skunked" because it was opened more than 3 days ago and I haven't finished it off yet ---that makes it perfectly acceptable to cook with $27 wine....oh the trials of living solo...And I would just drink the whole bottle before it's gone bad, but I don't drink anymore....of course, recent studies show an undeniable health benefit in one glass of anti-oxident filled red wine a night....so I have a glass occasionally. But I don't count that as drinking. Oh, and last weekend I had two glasses of plum wine, a jack and diet and two vodka-sprite-with-a-spash-of-grenedine and a cherry (aka a "dirty shirley") But that wasn't drinking either....because it really was only one night and I got drunk and didn't really like it. So for all intensive purposes, I really don't drink anymore. Minus that occasional glass of red wine....of course...but only for the health benefits.

Back to my up and comming stew adventure:
I'd like to enjoy my beef stew in the company of an educated, opinated, free-thinking philosopher. Luckily, I know one. Unbeknownst to him, he will be recieveing an invitation to enjoy homemade (ok crockpot) stew and rustic peasent bread with me on Friday night. Does anyone know how to make rustic peasent bread? Mmmmmm rustic peasent bread. Of course, I don't really eat bread anymore either, except those low-carb-100-calories-per-serving-sandwich-thins and the Fiber-One English Muffins, but I don't exactly count those as breads. They are like bread that have all the negative aspects of bread negated with the added fiber and subtracted carbs/calories. Of course, they would not impress my philosopher friend.....so I must figure out how to make rustic peasent bread.