Pumpkin and Coconut Soup
Adapted from "Soups: Over 200 of the Best Recipes," Hamlyn,2007. This is spicy. If you'd like a little less heat, cut back on the chilies.

Forget the paint. Put down that marker. Those sweet little pie pumpkins you see in the market are not just for decoration, they're real food, even really easy food.

Many a pumpkin recipe starts with the instructions, " peel, seed and cube the pumpkin." Unless you'll be sauteing the squash, don't bother peeling it, a task I find frustrating and time consuming.

Instead, wash the little cuties under cool running water, stab them several times all over with a sturdy knife and roast them, skin and seeds intact, on a rimmed baking sheet in a 350-degree oven. When the skin has a burnish to it and a knife pierces the pumpkin with ease, it's done. The amount of time this will take depends on the pumpkin's size, figure about a half hour a pound.

Q. Here is a big question I'll bet all we "noncooks'' wonder about: When a recipe calls for, say, 1/3, 1/2, 1 cup or more of either granulated or powdered sugar, how do you translate that into portions of phony, no-cal sugar?
— Brooks

A. Sucralose, such as the Splenda brand, works best in recipes that use sugar primarily to sweeten rather than provide rising power, yeast activation, moistness or browning.

If you use sucralose, use the same amount called for in the recipe. Baking with the other nonsugar sweeteners is not recommended since they are not heat stable.