Favorites for summertime meals include Fresh Corn Pudding and easiest chocolate torte ever!

Judith Bell

Food Editor

When you have the time, please consider making Fresh Corn Pudding as an accompaniment to any grilled meat, fish, or shellfish. The time you’ll need is in the baking as putting it together might take 10 minutes...tops!

One tip: to cut corn from the cob, place one piece of corn in a medium bowl. Cut the kernels off starting halfway down the cob. Then turn corn and remove the remainder.

The baking casserole might be your fanciest as the pudding will go from the oven to the table for serving.

Fresh Corn Pudding

2 cups fresh corn cut from the cob*

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon butter, melted

3 eggs, slightly beaten

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper 1 1⁄2 cups half and half

*About 5 ears of corn

Combine all of the ingredients in the order given. Butter a 1 1⁄2 quart round casserole dish.

Pour mixture into the casserole dish. Set the casserole in a shallow pan of very hot water. Set the pan with the casserole into the middle of a 325-degree oven. Bake for 1 to 1 1⁄4 hours or until a knife inserted midway between the edge of the casserole and center comes out clean (like a custard). Remove from the oven. Allow to set about 15 minutes. 4 servings

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A Fancy Easy Torte is elegant. It is so good looking that you’d never expect it to be a frozen pound cake simply “dressed up” with a spreadable chocolate sauce. This torte rescues the busy cook. Give it a try next time you want an impressive dessert.

Fancy Easy Chocolate Torte

1 Regular Sara Lee frozen classic pound cake (10.75 ounces)

1 (6-ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1/3 cup boiling water

4 egg yolks

2 teaspoons cognac, rum, or vanilla

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

Slightly thaw pound cake and cut into 3 or 4 layers (4 layers most impressive). Melt chocolate morsels in boiling water.

In a medium glass or metal bowl, beat egg yolks until light and lemon colored. Blend in melted chocolate morsels and cognac or other flavoring. Beat in softened butter until light and fluffy (If mixture has cooled, warm just enough over simmering water so that the butter can be beaten in).

Beat mixture over ice water until mixture is of spreading consistency.

Use mixture to fill layers and top of sliced pound cake. Decorate the top of the torte as desired. Refrigerate until 20 minutes prior serving. 6-8 servings.

Oops: Yes, I love Braised Cucumbers and mistakenly printed them two weeks in a row! Oh my! My "helper" is away for a bit and she would have caught this oversight. Apologies galore, JB