Don't try this at home . . .

So it was just a week ago that I enlisted your advice for my organic pumpkin.

Indecisive to the last, I thought I'd go for the best of both worlds . . . by simply carving half and cooking half.

I stewed for a while over whether the horizontal or vertical cut was the way to go, then settled on the vertical. I'd leave the base in tact for stability.

But guess what? The whole thing toppled over anyway! For a brief second I considered stabilizing it with an iron doorstop, and then I figured that's crazy talk. Let's make a big pot of soup.

Here you see the final product. Those of you who warned that a jack-o-lantern pumpkin doesn't make the best eating definitely had a point. I'll admit it took a lot of brown sugar, garam masala, coconut milk, wine, and salt to finally get this to something you might like to eat. But after simmering in the pot for a little while, the soup's a qualifed success (not to mention a voluminous one! There aren't enough plastic containers in the world).

So hats off to Brink for keeping me honest and waste-free. Of course we don't have a jack-o-lantern now, but given the surly teens and the fact that Halloween's on a Friday this year, I'm going to call that a stroke of good luck.