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Guess I'm just an old fuddy-duddy - I love pumpkin pie and have been making it for 70 odd years - when my son and daughter were young, they would devour it - this year for the first time, we ordered a pumpkin tart from a wonderful French bakery in Cary, NC, after sharing a slice Sunday afternoon with a latte - really scrumptious -

And while I'm here, I want to wish one and all a wonderful Thanksgiving - may everything you eat bring you pleasure.

@johnfred...I agree Costco pumpkin pie is a great one! $5.99!!

If you want a large delicious pumpkin pie go to Costco. Theirs is fabulous and cheap. Never a shortage. I am not a big fan of pumpkin pie but the Costco version is great. This seems like an especially good suggestion for the people who can't stand pumpkin pie but make it for others.

Don't forget the citrus! We have big lemon fans in my family and it's really nice after a big meal. I'm making my own meyer lemon curd this year *fingers crossed*.

Even canned pumpkin is not always pure pumpkin. Sometimes there's other varieties of squash in it. Just substitute your favorite squash. Delicata makes really good pie.

What? You mean you guys don't grow your own winter squash? :-)

(Actually, I didn't get a crop this year either. Drought.)

Isn't canned pumpkin actually cushaw squash? I think I heard that somewhere. The only difference between a "pumpkin" and a "squash" is cosmetic, anyway.

Sweet potatoes seem plentiful, and sweet potato pie seems more forgiving than pumpkin pie. They're a lot easier to peel, for starters. If you really must have a custard pie made with an orange vegetable, it seems sweet potato would be the way to go. Butternut squash is probably a runner up. Much higher flesh to seed ratio than pumpkins.

That should have read "I was able to buy canned squash as usual"

Hrm, I've had no problem finding canned pumpkin, either (Southern California). I read about the shortage and saw that my local market was out one week (thus confirming the story to me), so the next time I saw some I stocked up. However, ever since then (it's been a couple of weeks now) the market hasn't run out. Either no one's buying it, or SoCal is hoarding the nation's canned pumpkin.

Well, I love pumpkin pie, and I don't just eat it at Thanksgiving - I enjoy it all year long. But if pumpkin wasn't available - well, sweet potato pie tastes just as good, and you don't even need canned anything to make it.

And pumpkin or sweet potato pie at least have some nutritive value - not a lot, but there's some fibre and beta carotene hidden inside, as well as a whack of Vitamin A. Tarte au sucre? I'm Canadian, so it seems unpatriotic to say so, but you may as well mainline the sugar into your blood. Same thing with most pecan/shoofly/etc. pies - all sugar, no nutrition.

Sorry to be the lone hater, but I hate pumpkin pie, this is a great excuse to make a double pecan pie instead!

Just follow the recipe on the dark Kayo, and double the amount of Pecans (use good ones, Sunnyland will ship you some). The extra pecans balance out the super sweet caramel custard filling.

If you are too lazy to make a crust, buy the Pillsbury Just Unroll, which Cook's Illustrated rates #1 in premade. It's bland, but not offensively bad.

My husband is French Canadian, so around this time every year I make Tarte au Sucre, or Sugar Pie. It's made with butter, evaporated milk, and brown sugar, and it's delicious warm with vanilla ice cream. Unlike just about everyone else on this thread, I really do like pumpkin pie, but sugar pie is a nice alternative that's really easy to make.

I roasted one of those big French pumpkins yesterday and it's true that it takes a little time (mainly, letting it sit in a colander to drain after cooking since it has a lot of water in it), but it's only once a year and the color of pie is a gorgeous orange you don't get from canned pumpkin.

PS. I don't actually eat pumpkin pie (hate it); I make them for a community center dinner.

@simon: Good point. And I thought of that while compiling this list. Still, part of the reason the shortage is worse than expected is that the rains in the Midwest this year ruined the season's pumpkin crop—pumpkins the canners were hoping would enter the pipeline to alleviate the downturn. Not sure if that's the case in other parts of the country (I haven't looked for pumpkins 'round these parts myself), but if fresh pumpkins are hard to get, folks can still consider these pies.