Over the lent of 2025 I decided to be characteristically crazy and go on a monk-like diet.

For 46 days I consumed nothing, not even water, except for after sundown I would make a porridge from 4 cups of water, 1/4 cup pearl barley, and 1/2 cup of lentils, along with a slice of peasant loaf I would buy at Le Fournil, a French bakery on my corner. With this, I would have 750 milliliters of water to drink.

I went from 170.1lbs to 133.6lbs, saved a bunch of grocery money, and the only minor downside was that whenever I stood up I couldn't see for a couple of seconds.

I didn't necessarily look great with my shirt off, but nobody sees me shirtless anyway, so no big deal; I liked the way I looked dressed. Slim rather than gaunt.

But that particular lent was right before a big trip to France and Morocco, so in the midst of this drastic weight loss, I had a couple of suits tailored, bought some nice slacks, and none of them fit now (I'm currently 177lbs).

I have a black tie weekend in 31 days, so I picked the fast back up yesterday (though I had coffee and water throughout the day) but without the bread, since I didn't have any. I made a plan to run down this morning and pick up a loaf, but then it occurred to me that the whole point of a peasant loaf is that it's simple to make.

I had flour, and salt, and (surprisingly) a leftover packet of yeast from some recent project I can't recall. So I mixed them together, and did the usual dance of adding more water because it was dry, then more flour because it was goopy, and on and on, but then tossed it in a bowl, covered it, and went to bed.

When I got up this morning, just like our savior, it had risen (see pics). It was a bit too wet and didn't hold a form like I would have liked, but I tossed it into the oven at 450 with a pan underneath it that I poured boiling water into for steam.

It didn't get quite as dark as I would have liked, but it looks promising, and held a decent shape.

Will see how it turned out after sunset...