Congratulations to Donna Marie Ranucci of Coventry, who was selected to appear on the Rachael Ray Show as part of the “Hey, Can You Cook?” cooking challenge. Although she was not the grand prize winner, Donna had an experience she will never forget. Not only did she have to fly to New York where the show is taped, she went on to Mexico, making 10 airplane trips in one week. For the first challenge, the contestants went to a chocolate factory in Oaxaca and learned how to make chocolate.

For their next challenge, they had to use the five basic food staples of Mexico: corn, chili, cactus, squash and verdolaga, an herb. The contestants were given 500 pesos to purchase everything they needed in as little as 30 minutes from vendors in an open-air market.

Each contestant had to overcome perhaps the biggest challenge of all, the language barrier. They also had to use an authentic Mexican grill, using charcoal, a few sticks and matches.

Despite generally good comments from the judges, Donna did not survive the first elimination round. She was paired with Timothy Morris of Washington. Their dishes – which included a stuffed chili pepper with peach mango salsa, olive oil and garlic, drizzled with chocolate, and a dessert of sliced pineapples with hollowed-out centers and melted chocolate with vanilla beans and Mexican liquor – just did not rate high enough.

Donna is the author of Donna’s Dishes: Cooking for a Cure, a collection of 150 hearty, healthy and inexpensive family recipes. She donates 30 percent of the proceeds from the book to different charities. For more information about Donna’s book, contact her at dmarieranucci@aol.com.   More

Have you ever been to a meat cutting party? The culinary crew with the Newport Restaurant Group gathered recently to do just that with an entire grass-fed, crossbred Red Devon steer, provided by Greg Lynch and Patrick Beck, partners at New England Grass Fed LLC.

The steer arrived frozen, and it took more than 24 hours for it to defrost in the walk-in cooler at Castle Hill Inn in Newport. Eight chefs participated in the meat-cutting experience, dividing up the meat for restaurants in the Newport group: Trio in Narragansett, Boat House in Tiverton, Waterman Grille and Hemenway’s in Providence, 22 Bowen’s, The Mooring and Castle Hill Inn, all in Newport.

According to Beck, the chefs were excited to see the dense, dark red meat and the internal marbling. He pointed out that the buttery yellow fat was full of B vitamins and soluble Omega-3 fats. “The Devons retain the old qualities that make them hardy, a good all-rounder for the small traditional farmer,” Beck says. “Because they don’t grow so big, they were overlooked for many years but have recently emerged as the class of the field among those who know truly outstanding grass-fed beef.”

Steaks, roasts and short ribs piled up during the meat-cutting party. The meat was trimmed, and those trimmings were used to make kielbasa, salami and bresaola. Some of the meat was ground for burgers. All in all, the chefs got nearly an 80 percent yield, pretty remarkable when 60 to 63 percent is normally considered a good yield from a butcher.   More

You've done it again, even though you swore this year would be different: you've put off your holiday shopping until the last minute. You could brave the malls and big box stores filled with crushing throngs of your fellow down-to-the-wire shoppers all scrambling for the last one of whatever mass-produced gift is in vogue this year. Or, you could relax, enjoy a stroll, and keep more money in your local economy while getting unique gifts that you'd never find at Target. East Greenwich's Main Street Merchants have a solution for the conscientious procrastinator. Their Downtown Holiday Stroll is this Thursday, December 22, with participating merchants open until 8pm. There will be festive lights, carolers, and the chance to feel that -- for once -- last minute gift buying can be a pleasant experience.   More