[1] This fancy-looking dessert is quickly assembled from easily-available ingredients (photo courtesy Good Food On Montford).

[2] Pepperidge Farm Pirouettes, rolled wafer cookies, are an easy dessert garnish (photo courtesy Pepperidge Farm).

It doesn’t take much effort to turn ordinary ingredients into a great-looking dish.

This example (photo #1), from Good Food On Montford in Charlotte, North Carolina, shows how easy it is to turn basic ingredients into an ogle-worthy dessert.

If you purchase all the ingredients, there’s no cooking required!

The snappy look of this dessert is created by the square of cake. A traditional slice of loaf cake, or wedge from a round cake, doesn’t have the same appeal.

The denser the cake, by the way, the better. You can also use a brownie or other bar.
 
MAKE IT AT HOME

All you need are:

 
While the pastry chef appears to have dehydrated thin slices of banana to make the vertical top garnish, you can use these options, inserting them vertically on top of the ice cream:

 
Other options:

 
Ready, set, assemble!
 

In the recent past, we were looking for the “best” ham for our Easter dinner.

As part of research for THE NIBBLE, we tasted six different hams and came up with the winner: Kurobuta ham from Snake River Farms.

If you’ve been pondering a ham for Easter dinner (or any other time of the year), or want to send a memorable Easter gift (or Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas or any occasion), Kurobuta (pronounced koo-row-BOO-tuh) is the ham for you.

Succulent, deeply flavorful and beautifully textured, it’s become the Easter standard at our house, and a mainstay of buffet dinners during the year.
 
 
THE WORLD’S BEST HAM?

Kurobuta ham has been called the world’s best ham by chefs and food writers.

You can always raise an eyebrow when reference is is made to “the best” of anything. Regarding food: Who has tasted everything in the category to determine “the best?”

Even at THE NIBBLE, when we have tasted 100 hot chocolate mixes, extra virgin olive oils, strawberry jams, etc., we know there are products out there that we haven’t known about.

That being said, everything we’ve research and read has come up with no better ham.

Made from pure-bred Berkshire pork, it’s also known as the Kobe beef of ham.

That’s because of the fine intramuscular marbling that makes the meat melt-in-your-mouth tender.

How good is this ham? Tender, with a perfect smoke and impeccable seasoning. Subtle notes of clove and other spices caress the tongue.

With other hams, even premium ones, the only thing that caresses the tongue is salt.
 
 
KUROBUTA PRODUCTS

That Berkshire pig produces more than ham. Here’s the the “menu” at Snake River Farms:

Kurobuta Hams

 
Kurobuta Bacon

 
Kurobuta Chops

 
Kurobuta Ribs

 
Other Kurobuta Cuts

 
 
PURCHASE ONLINE

Head to SnakeRiverFarms.com or phone 877.736.0193.

[1] Ham doesn’t get any better than this Kurobuta (photo courtesy Snake River Farms).

[2] Thick slices of ham are succulent and tender (photo courtesy The Chocolate Lab | SF).

[3] There are other Kurobuta cuts, including this rack of pork (here’s the recipe from Kita Roberts | Girl Carnivore).

[4] Boneless loin of pork (photo courtesy Williams-Sonoma).

 
 
WHAT MAKES A GREAT HAM?

It all starts with the quality of the pork. All Kurobuta hams are 100% Berkshire pork, a heritage breed. Kurobuta (the brand name for Berkshire pork), which means “black hog” in Japanese, is considered the pork equivalent of Kobe beef.

Other important factors are the ingredients used to cure the ham. Kurobuta’s cure is a recipe that has been in the family for a long time.

Kurobuta hams are “city hams” (the different types of ham), so they’re fully cooked. The smoking process is important. You want to add flavor, but not overpower the pork.

Like all meat products there are different quality levels for ham. Some of the lower-priced hams inject water into the muscle to add weight and to distribute the salt and seasonings. This is a shortcut that makes ham cheaper, but not necessarily more delicious.

Why is some ham so salty?

Some of the classic Virginia hams are extremely salty. These “country-style” hams are intended to be that way. They’re generally sliced thin, like prosciutto, and served with an acidic condiment like mustard.

[1] Something new in ice cubes: the Titanic hits the iceberg (photo courtesy The Caveman’s Guide).

We have a quirky sense of humor. When we saw this quirky—some might say macabre or tasteless—ice cube mold, we had to have it.

The mold makes cubes in the shape of the H.M.S. Titanic and the iceberg it unfortunately encountered.

We like to keep surprising our guests, and these did it. We’re not so sure they’ll have the same impact the second time around, but there are always other guests.

The shapes will be most noticeable in clear drinks: gin and tonic, Sprite, and the like.

You can also use them for:

We found them in The Caveman’s Guide which sells them on Amazon.