FRITTERING AWAY A SUMMER AFTERNOON

Fresh corn will be hitting the market soon and I'm praying my smell and taste will return in time for this once-yearly treat. Nothing beats a beautiful ear of salt and pepper corn, crunch and sweet, salted and buttered. In anticipation, I thought corn fritters would be the perfect accompaniment to my crockpot rotisserie chicken. Chickens were on sale, so this time I bought a 6 pound one. While it was not overcooked after 4 hours, I understand now the dilemma of the collapsing chicken. When I went to lift it out of the pot, it came "in sections." I'm assuming the fact that the larger chicken extrudes more fat and thus sits in liquid longer is the reason for this. It was, however, just as delicious, so caveat emptor. Remove it from the pot carefully lest you, too, have shredded chicken strewn over your curls.

Back to the corn fritters. My first cookbook--copyright 1963--was the Good Housekeeping Cookbook--and it's the first one I go to for roasting times and the answers to simple questions. I've been making their sourthern style corn fritters for years and prefer them to all others that I've tried. The bonus is they take less than 20 minutes, start to finish (I was just being cute with my title).

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tbs baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

2 tsp vegetable oil (more for frying)

2 1/2 cups cooked whole kernel corn

Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Beat the eggs; add the milk and vegetable oil. Stir in the flour, then the corn. Heat enough oil to cover bottom of pan and fry by tablespoonfuls into hot oil. Fry 3-5 minutes, turning once. Drain on paper towels. Keep warm in a 250 degree oven. Serve plain or with syrup or sour cream.

I eat mine plain, but my mom and dad always added syrup, as if they were eating pancakes. Larry said his parents did, too. I'd usually add sour cream to mine, but since I can't taste, why waste the calories? They have a lovely texture and reheat well.