When the weather’s warm, you don’t need a special occasion tocook out, picnic or throw a patio party. Any fine day is a goodreason to scrub down the grill and heat up your inner outdoorcook.

As you stock up on burgers and buns at the supermarket, gatheryour own crop of sweet, fresh corn too. Take your pick: Fresh cornis right at hand with husks intact, or in convenient packages withhusks and silk either partially or entirely removed. All you haveto do is get fresh corn home and into the refrigerator as soon asyou can. Just place the ears – with or without husks – looselywrapped in plastic in the refrigerator.

Fresh sweet corn hasbeen bred using tried-and-true traditional methods to spring updivinely delicious and taste sweeter longer. Refrigerating it makescorn’s moisture and sweetness last for days. Whether your kernelsare yellow, white or speckled with both, they will burst withsweetness when they reach the table.

Fresh corn is a no-fail crowd-pleaser, especially on the grill.On the cob or off, with or without butter, sweet corn makes it easyfor cooks and non-cooks alike to draw endless rounds of “Mmmmmm’s.”And it beautifully partners with just about any other food you canthink of from fish and meats to a roundup of other seasonalvegetables.

While corn is perfect bare-naked, it loves butter too – and evenbetter is herbedbutter. Allow butter to soften to room temperature and mix inyour favorite flavors. Try butters with garlic powder, dill,parsley, cilantro, or crushed dried oregano. You can experimentwith different salts, too, such as Himalayan pink salt, smokedsalt, Maldon salt and others. Try a squeeze or two of fresh limejuice, or just go with a sprinkling of salt and cracked blackpepper.

Whichever seasoning combination you choose, fresh sweet cornneeds a minimum of preparation, and it’s equally delicious whenprepared in either of these two ways:

* Remove the outer husk and soak in cold water for 15 minutes.Then pull the inner husks down to the bottom but don’t tear themoff. Rub off the silk. Brush lightly with butter, then pull thehusks back up and tie at the top with a string or piece of husk.After five to seven minutes on a preheated grill, turning as thetimer ticks, the corn is ready to eat.

* Remove all of the husks and silk, roast the corn on the grill,then brush on the butter after the corn is done. This way, somekernels become even sweeter, their natural sugars caramelizingduring direct contact with the heat.

Fresh corn makes it as easy as possible to celebrate thelong-awaited arrival of grilling season with out-of-this-worldbursts of sweetness. For more corn basics as well as otherflavorful, easy-to-prepare corn recipes,visit www.sweetfreshcorn.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent