[2] Look for the box in the freezer section (photo Kraft Heinz).

This week we have a tie for Top Pick. Both sit in the freezer until you want them. And we want more and more of them.

1. NANCY’S PETITE STUFFED BAGELS

We received samples of Nancy’s Petite Stuffed Bagels right before Thanksgiving; and what a festive treat they were.

The bagels are stuffed with different flavors of cream cheese:

 
The bagels are kept frozen, then heated in the oven or microwave. We found microwaving worked just fine.

We enjoyed a mixed selection of them with our morning coffee or tea.

But these lovely bites will make a brunch or special-occasion breakfast all the more festive.

The marketing materials explain that the product was inspired by Nancy Mueller, a San Francisco hostess.

But surprise: The brand is owned by The Kraft Heinz Company, which produces the NANCY’S Frozen Appetizers & Entrées line.

This detail came as a surprise to us, because the product packaging and the bagels themselves seem more like a small brand labor of love than the product of a mega-manufacturer.

Bravo, Kraft Heinz. We plan to keep our freezer full of these little treats.

Petite Stuffed Bagels are available on nationwide at select grocers, at a suggested retail price of $6.99 for 16 bagels.

Each petite bagels delivers two big bites.

We have an admission: As a bagel lover who often eats a large bagel for breakfast, we are just as satisfied with one or two of Nancy’s Petite Stuffed Bagels.

You may be familiar with Bantam Bagels, the original mini stuffed bagel.

We enjoyed them for several years, fresh at their shop in Greenwich Village. But when the frozen version came out, for us it lost something in translation.

We found that microwaving produced chewy dough. While we didn’t test Bantam Bagels side by side with Nancy’s, we didn’t have this problem with the latter.

However: Bantam, we love your new Bantam Pancakes. They’re not flat, but rounded like the bagels to include a delicious filling.

The varieties include:

 
Now when you have a pancake craving, just pop one or two into the microwave.

There’s a store locator on the website, or buy them online.

They’re an innovative thank-you gifts for dinner, party or weekend hosts.

Note to our friends and family: We’d be happy if Santa brought us a few more boxes.

[4] Look for Bantam Pancakes in the freezer section.

[2] Clean the grinder regularly with bread or rice (photo courtesy Coffee & Tea Newsletter).

[3] Brush out fine grounds with a soft brush (photo courtesy Alibaba). You can also repurpose a clean makeup brush.

If you care enough about the freshness of your coffee to grind your own beans, you need give the grinder a regular cleaning.

Just as oils collect in the bottom of the coffee pot, they leave their oily residue in the well and on the blades of the grinder.

Over time, the oil becomes stale and affects the flavor of the coffee.

You may or may not notice oil on the lid or blades of the grinder. If you do, you know it’s time to act. But even if you don’t, plan to clean the grinder a few times a year. If you use the grinder daily, clean it once a month.

Here’s the technique from TODAY Home:

 
 
OTHER USES FOR A COFFEE GRINDER

 
In fact, if you have a second coffee grinder—an older one you haven’t tossed, for example—clean it thoroughly and use it for these non-coffee purposes.

Baking Christmas cookies is a tradition in many homes. While recipes abound, here’s a spin: cup cookies.

They’re notched to fit on a cup rim, an engaging way to serve a cookie with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or milk.

You can make your favorite recipe or use refrigerated cookie dough.

Treat the family, bring a batch to the workplace, give them as gifts: It adds fun to flavor.

 
Thanks to Pampered Chef for the inspiration!
 
 
RECIPE: CUP COOKIES

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MIX the sugar cookie dough with the flour in a medium bowl. Roll out the dough on a pastry mat to ¼” (6mm) thickness.

2. CUT out the stars, using a star-shaped cookie cutter, and transfer to a cookie sheet. Using the releasing end of a cake tester tool or a knife, create a notch halfway up the center of the star. (In the recent past, you could buy special cookie cutters that included the notch, but we haven’t been able to find them.)

[2] Peppermint hot chocolate with a sugar cookie star (photo © Pampered Chef).

[2] Stephen Twining, a 10th generation Twining, in front of the original London store, established in 1706.

[3] Twinings Buttermint Herbal Tea adds vanilla flavor to peppermint tea.

Twinings recently released three new herbal teas: Berry Fusion, Buttermint and Lemon Delight. The brand now sells 14 varieties of herbal tea in the U.S.

We received samples along with instructions for brewing herbal tea.

Herbal tea is not technically tea. The true teas are black, green and white teas, which are the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant.

Rather, herbal tea is classified as a tisane (tee-ZAHN)*, a brew of herbs, flowers or fruits. There’s more about herbal tea below.

Here, from Stephen Twining, Director of Corporate Relations, “tea ambassador” and 10th generation family member, are tea-brewing tips.
 
 
10 TIPS FOR A PERFECTLY BREWED CUP OF TEA

The process for brewing all kinds of tea is the same. The difference is in the brewing times (see the chart below).

1. Warm the pot. Fill a clean pot or mug with hot water, then pour it out.

2. Boil fresh, cold water. Start with freshly-drawn cold water. Never reuse previously boiled water.

3. Don’t over-boil the water. As soon as the teapot comes to a boil, remove it from the heat. Over-boiling reduces the oxygen in the water and can make the tea taste flat.

4. Pour water over the tea bag. Place the tea bag in the mug first, then pour the boiling water over it.

5. Let the tea bag sit. Some people are accustomed to dunking or pressing the bag. It’s best to let the bag sit, to allow the full steeping process to occur.

6. Savor the herbal essence. The first thing you’ll notice is the scent of the tea. Take a moment to savor the aroma.

7. Never judge a tea by its color. First, each variety of tea has its own color. There is no single color for black, green or white teas. and the same is true for herbals. As the color is released, it is tempting to think the tea is ready. But wait a bit longer. Herbal tea should brew for four minutes. Check the times for other types of tea below.

8. Wait for the flavor to develop. Flavor is the component that takes the longest to develop, so let the tea steep to the full four minutes to fully extract the flavor.

9. Customize your cup. A cup of herbal tea requires no additions—and certainly not milk! But you can add honey, sugar or a squeeze of lemon. Without sweetener, it’s just 4 calories a cup.

10. Make iced tea. Some people like herbal tea even more when it’s iced. Brew some to keep in the fridge.
 
 
OPTIMAL TEA BREWING TIMES

Before they were refreshing drinks, herbal teas were a major medical treatment (part of what today is known as homeopathy).

Since before written time, medicine men and women used bark, flowers, leaves, roots and seeds, infused in hot water, to treat a variety of maladies.

Modern aspirin, for an example, was derived from the bark of the white willow tree, which has been used to treat pain for millennia. The bark contains salicin, a glucoside that has an anti-inflammatory effect. Here are many more examples.

A well-steeped herbal tea delivers a plant’s benefits in an easily ingestible form. A few of today’s popular homeopathic teas:

We’re having a spread cocktail party. It’s not a Christmas/holiday party: We’re deliberately doing something different.

There will be no cheese ball covered with bright red pomegranate arils, no eggnog scented with nutmeg, no holiday cookies. Just spreads.

In fact, we’re calling them cocktail spreads, since we’ll be serving them with wine and cocktails.

It’s not that we’re anti-Christmas; it’s just that we’ll be eating all the traditional seasonal party foods at everyone else’s parties.
 
 
WHAT’S A SPREAD?

A spread is a food that is literally spread, generally with a knife, onto bread, crackers or similar foods. The bread serves as a base to enjoy the flavorful spread.

Spreads are distinguished from dips, which are not spread onto a food but but have food dipped into them instead. Spreads are thicker, dips are tinner.

Spreads can be made from

 
 
SAVORY SPREADS

We we’ll be serving a dozen choices from this master list. Make a selection of different colors and intensities (mild to pungent).

 
 
HOW TO SERVE THE SPREADS

Set everything out buffet-style.

Fortunately, we’ve got lots of bowls, and baskets for the different breads, toasts and crackers (the most interesting ones we can find).

There will be gluten-free crackers and crudités for the carb-averse.

And for those who need something more “substantial,” there will be a honey baked ham with honey mustard, and a poached salmon with yet another spread: sour cream and dill.

Now for the tough work: cutting down the list of spreads to pick an interesting collection.

[1] Pimento cheese spread. Here’s the recipe from Wisconsin Cheese Talk.

[2] Spinach spread. Here’s the recipe from Calculus To Cupcakes. You can blend arugula, broccoli rabe, kale, watercress or other greens with the spinach.

[3] Tarama (caviar) spread, using the tiny orange or reddish roe of carp, cod or mullet. Here’s the recipe from David Lebovitz.

[4] White bean dip, from David Tanis Market Cooking.