Cream Puffs + Hot Pepper Noodles

Feeling inspired by a handwritten poem from long ago likening one's husband to a cream puff, I decided to make cream puffs for a Valetine's dessert. (Yes, I am well aware that today marks one month plus one day past the holiday.) It was not to be, however, as it was all I could do after work to get the 44-clove garlic soup ready in time for dinner.

Then I decided to impress the visiting in-laws with the treat, but that didn't happen either, because my sister decided that eating Burger King soft-serve with caramel sauce was a better use of her last half-hour with me than watching me make pudding. And I got to share, so I ended up happy. Plus we got to witness the manager frantically trying to fill the next day's schedule by asking every employee in the place about availability.

So there I was at Presidents' Day (yes, I am aware that we are a few weeks past that), and with the holiday from work, I decided that there would be cream puffs.

Not only would there be cream puffs, but I began the one-new-recipe-a-week resolution I recently resolved. This may or may not have been prompted by the discovery that my to-make list exceeds thirteen Word document pages in length.

March's issue of Bon Appetit had a recipe from Penny's Noodle Shop in Chicago for hot pepper noodles, almost all ingredients for which I had in my cupboard (helping with another resolution I made . . . the no-spending-any-more-money-on-groceries-this-week resolution). They were absolutely delicious and provided a next day's lunch that even caused a coworker to ask what I was eating because it smelled so good. I've already made it again, so I definitely recommend adding it to your cooking repertoire.