What price spice? The number of little foil-packet seasoning or gravy mixes is ever-increasing, and Mr. Tidbit has managed -- until now -- to avoid considering how much they cost. Many of them easily top $1, but that seems to have been below the red line on Mr. Tidbit's agony meter.

What has caused Mr. Tidbit to lose what he likes to think of as his grip is the new One Dish casserole seasoning mixes from McCormick. There are two: Salsa Chicken & Rice, and Chicken & Mushroom. Mr. Tidbit has the salsa version in hand, and reads from the back:

"To prepare this dish, you will need 11/2 pounds of boneless chicken breast, 11/2 cups of uncooked rice, a 141/2 ounce can of diced tomatoes, an 83/4 -ounce can of corn, a cup of shredded Cheddar cheese, some water and this packet." Considering everything else you had to buy, how much do you think you'd like to spend for a packet of dry "salsa" seasoning?

At the discount supermarket where he found it, this packet cost $2.13!

Ginger grahams Mr. Tidbit is pretty sure he hasn't seen ginger-flavor graham crackers before, but please forgive him if he's wrong about that. There's not very much more to say about this probably new product from Nabisco's Honey Maid brand, except this:

Two of his little friends, seeing that the product is called gingerbread graham crackers (not ginger graham crackers) and that an icing-decorated gingerbread house appears on the front of the box, wanted to know if the crackers already had the icing on them.

No, they don't. But directions for making the icing and assembling the gingerbread house appear on the back of the package.

Banana roll Another kind of snack cake from the prolific Little Debbie doesn't normally rate a nod from Mr. Tidbit, but he feels that new Banana Pudding Rolls merit this brief discussion for two reasons: An admirable restraint in the level of natural and artificial banana flavor, combined with a nicely generous goo-to-cake ratio. They're not as wonderful as Little Debbie Nutty Bars, but what is?

AL SICHERMAN