Aah, you're MAKING one, OK.
That would be DEBUG, SEROUT2 and HSEROUT as they all support the same modifiers such as DEC, SDEC etc. DEBUG produces smaller code since its parameters are set at compiletime (with DEFINEs) while SEROUT2 uses runtime setable parameters.

For your backpack, select a PIC with USART and use HSERIN to capture the incomming data. Check mackrackits link as well!