I've never been a fan of frozen bagels. I don't care if you can toast them and they get all crunchy, I still like the bagels you get in the bread aisle, not frozen. They just taste better to me for some reason, and you can even eat them without toasting them.

So when I saw Kraft's new Bagel-fuls in the frozen food section, I was already thinking they might not be that great. But I bought them to see how they'd taste (for science and you readers, of course). First of all, if you store these bagel tubes filled with cream cheese in the freezer, you have to microwave them. You can't put them in the toaster unless they've already been thawed a bit, so if they're frozen you have to nuke them for 20 seconds.

How do they taste? They sorta taste like fried dough, not exactly bagel-ish. They're not bad, they'll do in a pinch I guess, but give me a regular bagel and I'll toast it and spread the cream cheese on myself.

There was a time - say, up to the age of 35 - that I didn't like either cheesecake or pumpkin pie. Maybe our taste buds change over time, but now I love both of them. You have to watch me or I'll eat an entire cheesecake myself.

Here's a recipe that sort of combines the best of both of those worlds, Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake. And it's pretty easy, especially if you use a can of pumpkin pie filling like some of the reviewers at the AllRecipes site suggest (it has a lot of the spices already in it). Full recipe after the jump.

Is your family totally devoted to canned cranberry sauce, despite all your best efforts to sway them to the world of orange-scented homemade compote? If so, maybe you're looking for a way to spice up that cranberry sauce (because serving it in the shape of the can does leave something to be desired). Paula Deen, in her trademark over-the-top style, has come up with a new way of serving canned cranberry sauce. Here's how she described it in a USA Today column.

"I gave a twist to cranberry sauce one year. You take a can of the jellied sauce and slice it in quarter-inch pieces. Then you mix up cream cheese and hot sauce and a little mayo, and you make up sandwiches - no bread, just the cheese mix in between cranberries."

Sounds like an interesting approach to cranberry sauce to me, although the purists would have a heart attack if you suggested adulterating their precious canned sauce with mayo and cream cheese.

Several months ago, my cousin lent me a stack of old recipes that had belonged to her mother. In that pile was a brochure from the Philadelphia Cream Cheese company. It looks like it's from the late fifties or early sixties and contains 44 recipes that use cream cheese (preferably Philadelphia Brand). The one pictured above isn't particularly seasonable, but for some reason sort of appealed to me. I guess because it's the time of year to start thinking about holiday pies.

Really, we all know the real reason why cupcakes are so popular. Cupcakes are basically an edible utensil for eating frosting, particularly when it comes to certain cupcake "flavors" like red velvet. What the hell is "red velvet?" It's nothing more than a fancy way to shamelessly eat a quarter- to half-cup full of cream cheese frosting.

Cream cheese frosting, you see, is the best frosting out there, and I have stumbled across the end-all, be-all recipe for it. Strangely enough, it's been under my nose this whole time in my trusty Joy of Cooking cookbook for years. I just never noticed it. At first I didn't trust it because it seemed way too easy compared to "fancier" recipes that make you think you need to be Ina Garten to make it, but this recipe is almost so easy, even Sandra Lee could make it. Ouch. Was that too harsh? See, that's how easy this recipe is.

Beat 8 oz. cold cream cheese (not rock solid, but it means you can use it straight out of the refrigerator) with 5 Tbsp. softened butter and 2 tsp. vanilla until combined. Gradually add 2 c. powdered sugar that has been sifted after measuring. Continue to add more sifted powdered sugar until you reach a consistency and sweetness that fits your taste.

No softening the cream cheese (though you do have to plan ahead with the butter). No whipping to a certain point that occurs for all of ten seconds before it's ruined. The hardest part is not eating the frosting straight from the bowl by the spoonful.

I have had some great figs this season (as well as a few stinkers, they can't all be perfect). While I admire people who make fig ice cream or fig galettes with their bounty of figs, my personal supply is typically fairly limited. So while I find myself gazing with longing at all the pretty recipes on the blogs and in the magazines, I can't bring myself to commit my few figs to any such endeavor. However, if I were to invest a few figs in the making of something, I think I would turn first to the recipe for Homemade Fig Newtons that Gena at Big City, Little Kitchen posted. The combination of pastry, cream cheese and fresh figs makes me salivate and wonder if the time has come to turn my humble little figs into some grander.

Originally launched on March 18th, 1967, Hostess Ding Dongs are celebrating 40 years this week as one of America's favorite treats. According to their website, Ding Dongs, (also known as King Dons and Big Wheels depending where you are from) were named for the chiming bells used in vintage Hostess commercials. They have been a staple in children's lunch boxes for decades, and more recently have been the focus of wedding and other celebratory cakes.

I'll be honest, since I've never really been much of a chocolate fan I'm probably one of the very few people on this continent that has never actually ever tasted one. I know, you're going to tell me they are rich, creamy, and delicious - I'll have to take your word on it. Though adding additional sugary-sweet products to already-prepared desserts sounds a little excessive to me, in the spirit of their anniversary I'll leave you with a recipe that features this chocolaty snack cake.

There is nothing better on a weekend morning than having breakfast in bed. If you end up having to be the one that prepares it, pour some coffee, grab the newspaper, and hop back into bed for an hour once your breakfast is made. It's the weekend, no one will care, and besides - you worked hard all week so treat yourself!

We love breakfast food around here, and are certainly no strangers to some French Toast variations. One of my favorite recipes for the morning is Raspberry Chocolate French Toast, a little twist on the original.

For the French Toast:
2 eggs
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 slices white (or enriched) bread
Whip the first three ingredients together and dip each slice of bread in the egg mixture. Pan fry in a pat of butter over medium heat, ensuring that the egg is fully cooked on all sides of the bread.

The Pumpkin Roll Cake is a back-of-the-box recipe, meaning that it is usually printed on the wrapper on cans of Libby's solid-pack canned pumpkin, so it is a recipe that just about everyone (in the US, anyway) seems to have come across at one time or another. Discounting the brands sold at natural foods stores, Libby's is the most common brand of pumpkin and the one you are most likely to see when at the grocery store, so it is not terribly surprising to find that when people are not making pie with their canned pumpkin, they are often making this cake, as did Nicole, from Pinch My Salt. The cake consists of a very thin pumpkin sponge caked that is rolled up and spread with a generous amount of cream cheese filling, giving it the ideal cake-to-frosting ratio for anyone who enjoys cream cheese frosting.

The recipe is after the jump.

In this week's Wall Street Journal, the ever savvy Catalogue Critic took on one of the most popular types of holiday desserts, cheesecake, to see if a good mail-order one could be found. Cheesecake may not sound like the perfect seasonal dessert, but more than one company that they interviewed reported that holiday sales had "increased in the double digits" over each of the last few years, and virtually all said that November and December were their biggest months of the year.

Orders were placed at five bakeries and testers, including the executive chef of the Four Seasons, were enlisted to judge. They looked for "a firm outside, a creamy interior and a balanced flavor" in each of the plain/vanilla cheesecakes. Their two favorite cakes came from Eli's Cheesecake Company and Junior's. Eli's ($28) was rich and creamy, with a shortbread cookie crust, but had a lemon flavor that not everyone enjoyed. Junior's ($29.95) was picked as the "best overall," as it was creamy, not crumbly, and had a slightly moist sponge cake base instead of a graham cracker crust. They also noted that Junior's is adding 12 flavors to their holiday menu for anyone who wants more than plain cheesecake.

Incidentally, shipping was not a problem for the testers, as all the cakes arrived in pristine condition via overnight shipping, so the cost of getting the cheesecake to your door is probably going to be a bigger concern than what it will look like when it gets there.

From looking at this scrumptious Cherry & Lemon Cream Cheese Tartlet from Lex Culinaria, you would never guess that it qualifies as a "light" dessert. The first trick employed in lightening the recipe was changing the crust. The tart crust is made from crunchy baked phyllo dough instead of a richer, more fattening shortcrust pastry. The smooth, creamy filling uses a low fat cream cheese and, of course, the beautiful fresh cherries topping the tarts off are full of vitamins and antioxidants. In this dessert, there is a great combination of flavors and textures. I already want to try the recipe - but there are so many other "light" applications for this kind of tart shell that I don't think it'll be the only time that I use the trick this summer.

Cream cheese was developed in America in 1872. It is unusual, different from other cheeses, not because of its smooth creamy texture, but because of how it is made. While many cheeses are thickened with an enzyme in rennet, cream cheese is thickened with the addition of an acid.

That may sound like a reasonably simple process, but the truth is the cream cheese is hard to make. And when things go wrong and the cheese comes out smelling like "dirty socks, cardboard, or Robitussin," companies have to call in the experts. Enter the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Dairy Research (UWCDR), where scientists do research to unlock the secrets of cream cheese and help manufacturers solve any problems that come up.

In his most recent column, food science writer Robert L. Wolke, breaks down the differences between the multitudes of cream cheeses on the market. Along the way, he points out the fact that Philadelphia Cream Cheese, which originated in New York, was so named because, at the time (around 1880), the City of Brotherly Love had a reputation for high quality food. Wolke then goes over some basics of cream cheese making—it's not aged, the texture comes from vegetable gums. In case you were wondering, whipped cream cheese is about 22 percent greater in volume than brick cream cheese and has only about 6 percent less fat. In his final one-man taste test, Wolke concludes what most of us probably already knew, regular cream cheese tastes better than low fat or no fat cream cheese. 

Sometimes the simplest things are the best and these amazing looking treats from Culinary in the Desert certainly fit the bill of being both simple and delicious. Oreo Truffle Balls have, at their center, a combination of Oreo cookies and cream cheese. The truffle centers are coated in white chocolate, which perfectly compliments the cookie filling. Making truffles in this manner is unique and much easier than doing a more traditional truffle, because the ganache centers - melted chocolate and cream - take more effort and practice than using a food processor. It goes without saying that any treat based on Oreos, a cookie that comes in over 12 varieties with at least another half dozen Oreo-based products, will be a huge hit with anyone lucky enough to sample one.

Ants on a Log is a kids snack food that has been around for a long, long time. Though I never personally saw the resemblance, it gets its name from the fact that the raisins dotting the celery are supposed to look like ants. On a log, obviously.

These are very simple to make and your kids should be able to make them by themselves (with a dull knife or spoon, for safety) without supervision. Simply wash and dry several stalks of celery. Spread some with cream cheese and some with peanut butter, then dot them with raisins and dried cranberries, though any kind of dried fruits will work beautifully. The Ants on a Log can be prepared at the last minute or in advance and they're a great addition to party food. Not only are they a fairly healthy snack for the kids, but the grownups will enjoy them too.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]