adding shortcode to a template

Hi wordpress people,
I am trying to customize the menu for this site (a bit of a mess right now):
http://mumford-photo.com/wordpress

I want to change the menu to give a list of all posts in a particular category, and I found a shortcode that does exactly this. it works if i put the shortcode into a post.

but I want to put the shortcode into my sidebar template (which I am using to generate the horizontal nav bar). here WP simply writes out the shortcode, instead of running it.

i did see this page, on how to put shortcode into a template: (http://englishmike.net/2008/07/07/wordpress-quick-tips-3adding-a-shortcode-to-a-sidebar-widget/) but the author describes inserting the shortcode into a “widget”. I don’t think my sidebar template has widgets.