Pastry cups

Pepperidge Farm, the nation's supplier of Milanos, Goldfish and square frozen cake, has added a new product to its line of frozen puff pastry. We already had two: sheets and shells (the latter are entrée-size items ready to fill and bake, enabling you to make elegant individual servings out of what might have been, say, tuna casserole or chili).

Now there are puff pastry cups: appetizer-size little vessels, enabling you to make elegant individual canapés out of what might have been, say, pudding or dip.

The package of 24 cups weighs 9.5 ounces, virtually the same as the 10-ounce package of six shells, and it generally carries the same price.

Too easy?

There's yet another new product from Marie Callender: Easy Sides, stand-up two-serving bags of little pasta twists or shells in five varieties: stroganoff, Alfredo, Parmesan, chicken flavored and mini shells & cheese. Just add water to the bag, microwave four minutes, let stand two minutes for the sauce to thicken, then stir. (Thus the large 4 on the bag seems to be a two-minute understatement. Close examination reveals that it says "cooks in 4 minutes," not "ready in 4 minutes." Tough call, but Mr. Tidbit must award the point to Marie Callender.)

In any case, although there are other products about which the same might be said, this is the first one that immediately suggested to Mr. Tidbit that it could be eaten directly from the bag, possibly while standing at the sink.

Premium baking

Over at Betty Crocker, the big word in new baking products is Hershey. And another big word is premium.

There are Hershey's premium cookie mixes: cookies 'n' creme, chocolate chunk and Reese's peanut butter & chocolate chunk; Hershey's premium frostings: s'mores, milk chocolate, cookies 'n' creme, Almond Joy, Special Dark and chocolate caramel; and Hershey's premium filled-cupcake mixes: chocolate, s'mores and Reese's peanut butter & chocolate.

At one store, the premium frostings were $2.59 and regular Betty Crocker frostings were $2.09. At the same store, the premium cupcake mixes, which make 12 cupcakes with fillings, were $2.79; regular Betty Crocker cake mixes, which make 24 (unfilled) cupcakes, were $1.99.

Al Sicherman