If you watch "Top Chef," you know the situation: contestants chafing at all the challenges that require them to cook "within the box," longing to "cook my food," which they don't generally get to do until the finale.

It was a little bit like that for graphic designer Kara Adanalian, a five-year resident of Kapoho on the Big Island, when she competed as one of four finalists in the 2009 Ultimate Cranberry Recipe Contest in New York City last October. Sponsor Ocean Spray flew the contestants to the Big Apple for a three-night, four-day stay. On Oct. 5, the contestants were ushered into a kitchen classroom at the prestigious De Gustibus Cooking School at Macy's Herald Square.

And there, Adanalian, a past first-place winner in the America's Best Home Cook competition, was faced with an unexpected "box" of her own making. The sponsors had measured out the ingredients for her recipe to the last pinch — no room for cooking from the heart, adding a little more butter because the mixture seems to need it or playing a little loose with the spice. In addition, some of the ingredients weren't quite right but couldn't be replaced.

She makes her Sweet-n-Savory Haricots Verts (French green beans) with dry-as-a-bone amontillado sherry, whole blanched almonds and fresh-from-the-farm beans. There, she had to make do with a nameless table sherry, slivered almonds and beans that were so spotty that she had to ask for more after she'd trimmed away all the bad bits.

There was the normal ham-handedness that comes of cooking in a kitchen not your own. There was the pressure of a cooking deadline. There were the distracting microphones and cameras. And there was the rule that they weren't allowed to speak to the judges; no presenting, no explaining — the dish was to stand on its own.

"These all seem like minor things, but when you're competing, it's a little nerve-wracking," Adanalian said.

In the end, the prize went to Patrice Hurd for her Cranberry Bacon Brunch Scones with Cranberry Pecan Cream Cheese. (Can't go wrong with bacon and cream cheese.)

But Adanalian is not complaining. She met celebrity chef Tyler Florence, who she said was "as easy, sweet and normal as anybody." She got to see a cranberry bog — in Rockefeller Center, where they had the closing reception (members of the Ocean Spray co-op recreated a bog in a fountain pond). She and her girlfriend, who traveled with her, ate out for days, lapping up New York's "almost overwhelming" energy.

Immediately the competition was over, she said, and she was completely deflated; she'd been looking forward to it so much and wouldn't know the results until later. But, luckily, she and her girlfriend had done their research and had a list of must-try restaurants at hand.

The one she wanted most to try, and which did not disappoint, was Mario Batali's Roman trattoria Lupa. She liked it so much, she went twice. "I probably cook more Italian than anything ... Eating out affords me ideas that I bring home and try to emulate," said Adanalian, who cooks daily for her husband, friends and family ("all of whom are great cooks").

One day, she was trying to find a source of dried cranberries online because the local market doesn't always stock them, and came across the Ocean Spray site with its contest information. She had just the recipe to use as a starting point — something she'd been fiddling with for a while, a play on Green Beans Almondine.

"I love green beans, and I can eat 'em just about any old way. I'd eaten a green bean salad somewhere that actually had some cumin in it, and some raisins, and I really liked it," she recalled. She went home and recreated it, using golden raisins and sometimes cranberries. She admits it's a simple recipe, but, she said, it might make a light alternative to the much more calorie-laden green bean and fried onion casserole at holiday tables.

"I love entering contests, and it's been a hobby of mine in the past few years," she said. Besides winning $17,000 worth of kitchen equipment in the Fine Cooking magazine 2004 America's Best Home Cook competition, she has been a finalist or semifinalist in several cookoffs both here and in California, where she grew up and lived until 2004.

"The most fun is meeting professional chefs and other top people in the industry; it takes cooking to a whole new level." And, in true Island fashion, who did she meet there? A food writer whose mom lives on the Big Island.

Here's her finalist's recipe.

SWEET-N-SAVORY HARICOTS VERTS

• 10 ounces fresh or frozen green beans or haricot vert

• 1 small onion, sliced

• 2 tablespoons water

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 cloves garlic, sliced

• 2 tablespoons butter

• 1 teaspoon cumin seed**

• 1 teaspoon curry powder

• 4 ounces Ocean Spray Craisins

• 1/4 cup sherry

• 1/4 cup Ocean Spray cranberry juice cocktail

• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 1/2 cup whole blanched almonds, toasted*

If using fresh green beans, cook in salted boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes or until just tender. Drain; rinse in cold water to stop cooking, pat dry.

Combine onion, water and salt in large skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until water evaporates. Add beans, garlic, butter, cumin and curry powder; stir to coat beans. Stir in dried cranberries, sherry, juice cocktail and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until liquid evaporates and mixture is heated through. Sprinkle with almonds.

Makes 2 servings.

• Per serving: 620 calories, 31 g fat,9 g saturated fat, 30 mg cholesterol, 700 mg sodium,78g carbohydrate, 12 g fiber, 55 g sugar, 12 g protein

*To toast almonds, cook in small, nonstick saute pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 5 to 6 minutes or until golden brown and fragrant. Toasted salted Marcona almonds can be substituted (canned, at Costco).

**If desired, lightly toast cumin seed in small saute pan and pound with mortar and pestle to bring out flavor.

Note: You can sometimes find haricots vert at farmers markets or at Costco.