The Corny Carnival...

Small town life can be wonderful. A healthy Main Street lined with successful shops and restaurants. Flower boxes brimming everywhere and easy parking. The bonus this week? The smell of steamed corn floating from somewhere off in the distance. Follow your nose to the edge of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin in mid-August and you have arrived at the Sweet Corn Festival.

They begin serving corn at noon and go until 7 PM. I can hardly describe the mechanics that it takes to put on this extravaganza! Over 100,000 people converge on this sleepy town. That's why they have to hold this event on the grounds of the local race track at the edge of town. Over 70 TONS of corn are served.

How many ears is that? I have no idea. All I know is for $1.50 you can buy one ear, but for your $4 they give you a "corn tote." It's a box about eight inches wide and a foot long. If you can balance corn a foot high in your tote, that's fine; they'll pile on as many ears as you can handle.

HOT corn, right out of the steamer. They say they steam it because steaming holds in the most flavor. I say they steam it because they could never find a pot big enough! It's a perfect system filled with messy fun.

Take your tote of blazing hot corn and go over to the peeling table. This is not a chore for the kids. Fully grown adults do the Hot Corn Dance as they quickly peel corn and then blow on their just-about-charred fingers. You've got to really want to eat corn. This part is torture! I made my husband do it.

Once you're done peeling, you go visit the "Butter Babes." That's what I called them. Lots of cute teenaged girls who, protected by large, insulated rubber gloves, roll your corn cobs in butter. You leave a tip, and they use the money to fund college scholarships.

On to the Salt Station. This is my favorite. Visualize one of those old-fashioned clothes drying structures that stand in the yards of small towns everywhere--the contraptions that look like a huge spider web on a stick. Only in the Salt Station there are about 50 large containers of salt dangling from strings attached to the giant spider contraption. You just stand under one of them and tilt the salt shaker so it pours on top of your pile of corn. Bingo! You are ready to eat.

Pull up a nice patch of grass and listen to a local choral group, band or other performance happening on the portable stage. Start chomping. Cob after cob, after cob.

Who needs a burger? Not me. I made a meal of corn. Of course, when you are finished with your corn, they have burgers, brats and junk food galore-if you are still hungry. They even have one of those monstrously unhealthy baby doughnut machines frying little circles of dough all day long. Eat them sprinkled with powered sugar, and you can almost hear your arteries hardening.

Then if you want your kids to likely "toss" their corn, there's a midway with every ride and concession you could ask for. Win a stuffed animal and carry it home in your butter-covered fingers.

What a way to spend a day in the hot sun in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

I'm fresh out of corn recipes, so I thought I'd give you a way to cool off after you come home. This makes a great afternoon snack or even qualifies as an elegant dessert after a special meal. It's my latest creation that fits in the category of a dessert that takes less than 15 minutes to prepare and then you just freeze it. You NEED a fast dessert when your social schedule includes a long day at the local festival.

Coffee Toffee Ice Cream Torte

2 cups of Oreo cookie crumbs (ready made from the box)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
2 pints of ice cream softened. (I used coffee ice cream for one and toffee chunk coffee for the other. You can make this with any ice cream flavors that sound good to you.)
3 cups pecan halves
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pull out your 9-inch springform pan. Pour the crumbs and 1/2 cup sugar into the bottom. Toss thoroughly with a fork. Drizzle the butter over the crumbs and then use your fork to combine. You save washing a bowl with this method. Make the crust right in the pan. Spread the buttered-up crumbs with your fingers across the bottom of the pan and halfway up the sides. You don't have to be precise.

Open the softened ice cream and, by scoops, fill the springform pan. You can layer the scoops or just assort them around the pan as you choose. With a table knife, gently spread the ice cream so it evens up pretty well. Put this in your freezer to begin hardening while you make the topping.

In a sauce pan, combine 3/4 cup sugar, orange juice, and cream of tartar. Bring to a low boil and stir while the sugar melts. This should take a couple of minutes. Raise the temperature slightly so you have a quiet boil going. You're taking the temperature up to 240 degrees if you have a candy thermometer, but if you don't, watch for the point when it starts to thicken up and darken slightly. Stay near in case it's tempted to try to boil over. Thickening should take about 5 to 7 minutes. Now take it off the heat and stir in the pecans. If you've used a large enough sauce pan, they can all fit; otherwise combine the sugar sauce and pecans in a bowl. When the pecans and sugar sauce are mixed, sprinkle on the cinnamon and mix one more time.

Take your partially hardened ice cream torte out of the freezer and carefully pour on the pecan mixture. No need to really decorate with it. Just spread it around to the edges. Quickly get it back in the freezer because the warm pecans will soften up the ice cream more, and some of the melted parts will rise to the top. That's okay. It should stay in the container just fine. It's never leaked on me. Keep the torte in the freezer at least four hours to fully harden.

When you want to serve it, run a sharp knife around the inside edge of the springform pan. Loosen the latch and take the torte out. Cut into slices with the same sharp knife.

Enjoy!