Television star Rachael Ray is promoting her latest cookbook, "My Year in Meals," with an event at 6 p.m. Dec. 10 at Meredith College.

Quail Ridge Books & Music is sponsoring the event. Tickets cost $5 or are free with the purchase of Ray's book.

Ray will autograph all the books ahead of time. The event will held at Meredith College's Jones Auditorium. Ray will be interviewed on the stage by Lisa Prince, host of the UNC-TV's "Flavor N.C." Then Ray will answer questions from the audience.

The first 10 people who purchase five or more books will have the chance to meet privately with Ray to pose for photos and have her personalize their books.

For more information, go to quailridgebooks.com or call 919-828-1588.

10-year-old Sydney McCoy from Apex is sharp enough in the kitchen to have landed herself a spot on Wednesday's "The Rachael Ray Show."

Sydney will make her special "taco cake" recipe (it looks amazing) in her segment of Wednesday's show, which is a special "Rach Jr." episode spotlighting talented young people.

The episode also features a 19-year-old designer and a 17-year-old smart shopper, but since cooking is the nearest and dearest to Rachael Ray's heart, Sydney is billed on Ray's website as "a 10-year-old who could be the next Rach!"

Raleigh parenting expert Amy McCready will be all over your TV next week.

First she'll appear on "The Rachael Ray Show" on Monday to give tips on how to deal with your kids when their grandparents spoil them. Then on Wednesday, McCready will do a segment on the "Today" show.

McCready is the founder of Positive Parenting Solutions, and travels the country giving speeches and conducting seminars. She has previously appeared on "Today" show to talk about spoiling your kids and to weigh in on the spanking vs. time-out debate.

"Rachel Ray" airs on WTVD each weekday morning at 10am. "Today" airs from 7am to 11am each morning on NBC-17.

From our tv blog, "Happiness is a warm tv"

Cheryl Baum, a 31-year-old bride-to-be from Cary, started off making a Rachael Ray recipe per day to impress her fiance Prav, but she ended up impressing Rachael Ray, too.

"This is the most flattered I've ever been in my life," Rachael told
Cheryl on the show that aired today. "That food looked better than when
I cook it."

Read more here.

Cheryl Baum, a 31-year-old bride-to-be from Cary, started off making a Rachael Ray recipe per day to impress her fiance Prav, but she ended up impressing Rachael Ray, too.

"This is the most flattered I've ever been in my life," Rachael told Cheryl on the show that aired today. "That food looked better than when I cook it."

Cheryl Baum, a nurse at Duke, will be on The Rachael Ray Show tomorrow, (10 am ABC- 11) talking about her challenge to cook a Rachael Ray recipe every day for a year.

Naturally, the idea was inspired by the hit film "Julie and Julia"in which a
woman did the same thing using Julia Child's recipes. But Cheryl had another reason -- she's getting married in December.

"I was a terrible cook," she says. "I would use Shake & Bake for any type of meat, add a bag salad and that was dinner."

It seems fitting that the city of Raleigh should end the year on yet another “Best Of” list.
This month the travel Web site TripAdvisor named Raleigh’s New Year’s Eve acorn drop No. 10 on its list of America’s quirkiest New Year’s Eve events.

Raleigh has already been named to more than 20 “Best Of” lists this year, including the Best American City for Singles by Every Day with Rachael Ray, and the Healthiest City for Men by Men’s Health magazine. TripAdvisor’s list was compiled using the sort of subjective judgments behind most “Best Of” lists. The list is based on different New Year’s Eve events’ popularity among TripAdvisor users and the Web site editors.

The news that there are nine other New Year’s Eve events in America more quirky than the acorn drop is likely to shock and disappoint many. Look up “quirky” in the dictionary, and you should see a picture of an acorn dropping.

Many of the events deemed more quirky involved the dropping of other strange objects: a glowing pickle in Mount Olive, a giant piece of cheese in Plymouth, Wis., a giant sausage in Elmore, Ohio, and a giant edible bologna in Lebanon, Pa.

At this point, Raleigh’s only real option is to start a campaign to drop something next year that is so quirky it will dumbfound the connoisseurs of quirk. TriPol is now accepting suggestions.