My (super-lame) fantasy

As you have probably gathered by now, I am a wild child. Just today I was thinking about the thing my college roommate and I used to fantasize about doing.

Are you ready for the big revelation?

We used to imagine (wait for it)... opening a soup and bread restaurant together.

Crazy, right?

Okay, probably not the kind of female college roommate fantasy situation that gets lots of traffic from people Googling on private browsers... but if you've read this blog long enough, it's probably about the revelation you were expecting.

My roommate and I considered steamy soup with a hunk of homemade bread the perfect meal, especially in the months and months of the year that are freezing, so we imagined someday having a soup bar right next to a bread buffet so everyone could enjoy our favorite pairing. 

I was thinking of our imaginary restaurant today when I browsed Better Homes and Gardens Soups & Stews Cook Book (1978). I wanted to find a recipe to serve as my fantasy specialty and then saw this:

Puffy cheese noodles? As in fluffy, home-made noodles full of cheese flavor? Yes, please! It combines my love of noodle soup and cheese in a single step! (And maybe the cheese would stay in the noodles instead of simply coating the spoon like cheese sprinkled on top of soup tends to do? Dare I fantasize some more?) (Yes, I am really this lame...)

The colander full of noodles sending out their cheese-scented steam looks as happy as I feel about the thought of this creation.

So what could I put puffy cheese noodles in? I didn't see any recipes that specifically called for them, but here is an interesting noodle soup recipe (from the same book):

It's not just regular chicken noodle soup, what with the tomatoes, creamed corn, and zucchini. It sounds like a soup made for people who are trapped in winter but fantasizing about summer... (Hmmm... That could be me! If I weren't wary of canned corn, I might be tempted to vegetarian-ize it and try it.)

If you're more interested in the plain homemade noodles the recipe recommends (Why, when there are puffy cheese noodles?), here it is as a bonus:

Here's hoping your fantasies don't come true!

(I know, we're supposed to hope they WILL, but have you really thought about it? I wouldn't want an actual restaurant with health inspections to pass and pain-in-the-ass customers to ask me which soups are gluten, soy, and dairy-free whether the corn in the cornbread was free-range.... Forget it!)