Separate blog page with single blog post on home page

I am not using 3.3.2 yet, but I will be when I do this.

I am upgrading and redesigning a website for a friend and I have a quick question before I get too deep into the design.

I already have the site set up to use a static page for the home page and the blog page on an internal page. But my question is: is there a way to set up a spot on the home page that displays the last blog post? Just one post at a time, with a link at the bottom to go to the blog page to read all blog posts?

Maybe even a plugin or something that would allow me to put something on the side bar that shows just a little bit of the last post with a link to read the rest on the blog page?

I would really appreciate any help you could give me with this. Thank you very much.