How to put summary of latest posts in sidebar???

To anyone who share and assist:

I am a graphic designer customizing my own wordpress template for my portfolio. I’m not deeply educated about developing with php. But, here is my situation, and maybe I am not searching right in the forums to get my questioned answered. I have a 3 column layout. My left column will display the pages and blog entry posts I created through wp. The front page will show a static page of my latest works in my portfolio. So the blog section will have to be reached through the navigation I have. The middle column shows various stuff. And the Right column will display my sidebar.php. I want to be able to customized my sidebar to the point where it will be displaying my latest posts. And with this I mean the title of the post, the date, and a short summary of the entry with a read more function that will show up on the left column when clicked on. I am also looking to limit that display of entries to 2 or 3, then below them archives or categories (which I know how to display), and some other misc. stuff below that. So can anyone point me or reply with a solution to my sidebar project?

Thanks,

s4int