Post-summer reality is setting in — back to work, back to school. No more lazy, Martha Stewart mornings griddling pancakes, baking muffins or carving fresh fruit.

        If you and the family eat breakfast, it has to be fast — hurrying to the bus or buckled in behind the wheel.

RATINGS

The Taste Team rated 13 breakfast convenience foods from the grocery on a 1-to-10 scale (1=poor;10=excellent). Average scores are in parentheses. 1. Tio Pepe's Churros (8.7): Mexican-style pastry sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. 2. Pillsbury Toaster Scrambles, Western-style (6.6): Toaster pastries filled with cheese sauce, scrambled eggs, ham, green pepper and onions. 3. Red Baron Ham Scramble (6.5): Biscuit-style crust topped with ham, scrambled eggs, cheddar and mozzarella cheese.

TASTE TEAM

More than 100 readers applied to serve on our new Taste Team. Thanks to everyone for their interest, and keep those applications handy — we'll choose another team next August.     These new members will serve until February on Taste Team I:     Regina Copenhaver is a part-time literature instructor at Northern Kentucky University who lives in Okeana. She describes herself as a “traditional country cook.”     A Mason resident, Tracey DiFalco lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, before her husband was transferred to the Tristate. A stay-at-home mother of three young children, she loves to cook Italian for her family.     Josh Knepfle cooks at home in Covedale for his wife. He works as a software engineer for eBay in Over-the-Rhine.     A transportation consultant who lives in Wyoming, Larry Lewis grills for his family.     Betty Payne of Southgate teaches voice and piano and likes to cook “regular” things like Italian.     Glenn Rinsky is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America who owns Chef's Kitchen Cakery in Madeira and teaches at area cooking schools. When's he at home in Landen, he tries to cook as little as possible.     A food technologist at Wild Flavors in Erlanger, Sharon Ware lives in Montgomery where she cooks for her family.     These Taste Team II members will begin serving in February:     Ric Barnes, Mason; Deb Burstion, Avondale; Michelle Langefeld, Lebanon; Bruce McClung, Westwood; Sandra Rhoads, Montgomery; Tim Rodenberg, Miami Township, Clermont County; Devon Skyllingstad, Avondale.

        So what's for breakfast?

        Many American families are waking up to eat grocery convenience foods — biscuit “sandwiches,” egg-and-bacon-filled burritos, toaster waffles — most frozen or refrigerated, and ready to microwave or toast in minutes.

        These items became popular at fast-food drive-through windows several years ago, and are now one of the fastest growing grocery categories, says the Food Marketing Institute in Washington, D.C.

        There are, in fact, so many breakfast convenience foods to choose from, we asked our new Taste Team to tell us which was best. The panel of seven nibbled 13 samples — from sausage biscuits (pork and vegetarian) to toaster pastries filled with scrambled eggs and ham to “Pancakes 'n Sausage” on a stick. We included just about everything except doughnuts and bagels. (We've already put those to the test, anyway.) All the samples were either microwaved, toasted or baked briefly in an oven.

        And the favorite was, somewhat surprisingly, Tio Pepe's churros — long, thin Mexican-style “waffle sticks,” coated with cinnamon and sugar. The churros appealed to the Taste Team on the most basic sensory levels: They loved the way the pastries smelled, looked and tasted, especially the mix of cinnamon and sugar, the crispy exterior and chewy center.

        As usual, the team sampled the products blindly, rating them on taste, texture and appearance. But for this test, the panel also judged samples on handling — how easy it was to eat the breakfast food with one hand, as if they were eating while driving or walking to a bus. (To gauge handling, we asked the Taste Team to pick up each item and take a bite.)

        Once again, the churros fared well, tying the Pancakes 'n Sausage On-A-Stick for first place in the handling category. But just because the odd Jimmy Dean creation handled well didn't mean the Taste Team was impressed. Overall, the pancake-on-a-stick finished in 11th place.
       

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