Let's talk shelf space, shall we?

You (and your recipe writer) are recalling the days when there were largish and smallish packages of cream cheese in the refrigerated case at the grocery store. Perhaps there was also a small tub of whipped cream cheese. It was a bit like Pleasantville, when everything was still in black and white.

Fast forward some number of years. Now there is every variety of cream cheese you can think of – at the very least blueberry, strawberry, pineapple, garden vegetable, honey nut, salmon, peaches and cream, roasted garlic, chives, mixed berry, and garlic and herb, with many of these also available in light versions and many available in whipped versions (and quite possibly, some available in light, whipped versions). There is also lowfat and nonfat cream cheese (the latter being our least favorite "food" on the planet). It's Pleasantville in living color (with the nonfat cream cheese being the ugliest shade of [insert your own least favorite color here]).

Is it any wonder, with 40 cream cheeses now taking foot after foot of precious refrigerated shelf space, that the modest, not-doing-anyone-any-harm, 3-ounce package of cream cheese is no longer available? (And how much of a surprise is it in a culture that is becoming terrified of fat, that the 3-ounce package is no longer to be found, but 12-ounce and 16-ounce packages are everywhere?)

The small packages were 3 ounces, so you need 6 ounces.