Manually call Preview of Latest Post within a Category?

Hi,

I’m doing a WordPress site with a static front page. What I could like to do is on that front page is manually call/display a preview of the latest blog post within a certain category.

I found this plug-in (haven’t played with it yet):
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/category-posts/#post-2550

What I could love to do is hardcode this into my homepage template with php. I was hoping that someone knew how to do this or could atleast point me in the right direction.

Thanks.