Whether you make it from scratch, from a can or you buy it from a store, no Thanksgiving dinner is complete without a pumpkin pie.

This one, from Flickr user maggiejane, is a little bit store bought, a little bit from a can and a little bit homemade. On her blog, Pithy and Cleaver, she writes that while she uses a premade frozen pie crust, the filling is canned pumpkin mixed with eggs, sugar, molasses and spices like cinnamon, ginger and clove.

Sounds to us like a little bit of work for a whole lot of Thanksgiving flavor.

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First there was the Halloween pumpkin shortage and now this.

Nestlé, the parent company of Libby's Pumpkin, said Tuesday that it might not have enough canned pumpkin for the Thanksgiving holiday.

"Our calculations indicate that we may deplete our inventory of canned Libby's pumpkin as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday," Paul Bakus, vice president for Nestlé's baking division, told the New York Times.

I've never met a pumpkin pie that I didn't like. It's hard to really screw up this Fall staple. However, getting it just right is also a challenge. One of the more bizarre incarnations of pumpkin pie that I've experienced was when I dated an extremely health-conscious pumpkin pie lover who would make pumpkin pies using soft tortilla shells as a crust. I am not endorsing that variety of "pie," although I had no problem eating it!

My least favorite pumpkin pies are the ones that have so much sugar that you can't taste the pumpkin. I experienced one such pie the other night from Sam's Club. Hopefully, the people who served me that pie are not Slashfood readers.

If you are in the mood for an easy pumpkin pie that has a real crust and actually tastes like pumpkin, I would highly recommend the frozen pumpkin pie from Wholly Wholesome. Check out the ingredient list: pumpkin, water, organic cane sugar, organic wheat flour, vegetable oil (palm oil, soybean oil), milk, eggs, organic whole wheat flour, sea salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves. I didn't feel too bad about putting those things into my body. Well, I did feel a little bad after I ate a quarter of the pie in one sitting.

You can tell that we here at Slashfood are knee-deep in autumn: some of us are swilling pumpkin beer and mixing pumpkin cocktails; some of us are making comfort food from soup to pot pie; and no few of us are stuffing Halloween candy into our mouths. So what better time to share a slim, marvelous volume devoted to recipes and techniques for autumn's centerpiece ingredient?

Yes, a pumpkin is a squash (and squashes, by the way, are gourds), and so are crooknecks, acorns, butternuts, zucchinis, chayotes, pattypans, carnivals and all of the summer and winter squashes that take center stage in A Harvest of Pumpkins and Squash. The book begins with cookbook author Lou Seibert Pappas' thoughts on squash, from their history to their purchase and preparation, followed by a wonderful and useful squash glossary (squashary?). From there we proceed to squash recipes (squashipes?).

With the holiday's just around the corner, we'll soon be digging into the wonderful world of pie. Do you have a perfect pie crust recipe, but when you put the filling in, the bottom seems to get too soggy? No problem. We've got several solutions for you!

Looking over the list of December food holidays and I see it's filled with many foods that you'd actually associate with December and the holidays, and that's a good thing. I hate it when you have a food holiday in a month where it just seems out of place. Like June being National Turkey Lovers Month.

Today is National Pie Day. Here are several recipes for Apple Pie, Blueberry, Pumpkin, and Boston Creme.

Or maybe you can be adventurous and try the Pumpkin Pie in another form ... liquid!

Update: a reader points out that we January 23 is National Pie Day, though I've also found a few sources that say it's today. Oh well, you can't have too many days of pie!

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is the leftovers. Especially the leftover desserts. When I was a kid, the morning after Thanksgiving and Christmas we'd be allowed to have a slice of pumpkin pie or a scoop of apple crisp for breakfast. My normally healthy eating mother permitted this sugary deviation from the norm by focusing on the fruit or squash used to make the dessert and not the butter and sugar.

To this day, I love to ladle out a big scoop of apple crisp into a soup bowl for breakfast after Thanksgiving. I'll nuke it for a minute, just to take the refrigerator chill away, and top it with a spoonful of plain yogurt. It's the very best version of fruit, granola and yogurt you've ever had and it makes it possible to eat leftovers for every single meal of the day.

If you're looking for a good recipe for apple crisp, check out the one I made on the last episode of Slashfood in the Kitchen.

• New ideas for Thanksgiving, including Turkey Sausage, Leek Stuffing, Roasted Japanese Yams, and Liquid Pumpkin Pie.
• And if you're cooking turkey this year, here's how not to screw it up.
• Meatless meals that are go for you and the planet.
• The wonderful world of Brussels Sprouts.
• Mmmm...cranberry chutney.
• A look at Alice Waters' new book.
• How to make a better pecan pie.
• More recipes this week: Minestrone, Mashed Potatoes, and Ginger-Cranberry Sauce.

There was a lot of really terrific food at the Philly food blogger potluck I hosted last Friday, but one of the standouts for me were the pumpkin blintzes that Alanna and Alex, the bloggers behind Two Fat Als, brought with them. Maybe it had been too long since I had last had a blintz, or maybe it was that I've always liked the filling of pumpkin pie better than the crust. For whatever reason, I couldn't stay away from these puppies and ate three of them in rapid succession.

They'd be a terrific way to change up your Thanksgiving dessert table or as a way of making your turkey day breakfast a little extra special. Your guests will definitely come back for more.

Well, with all of the pumpkin-related Halloween stuff we did yesterday, this seems like it's a day too late, but there's still plenty of pumpkin food to talk about.

It's Pumpkin Day, so maybe this is the day you can go to your supermarket or your favorite pumpkin-selling farmstand to get some pumpkins for your home and/or yard. But what about recipes? PumpkinNook.com has a ton of recipes, including many pumpkin pie, cookie, and cake recipes. Here's a recipe for Pumpkin Custard from Bon Appetit, while PastryWiz has one for Pumpkin Nut Bread.

There are plenty of recipes floating around out there for Halloween-themed cocktails (like the Mad Eye Martini that Bob posted about), but I am betting that many of them are candy- or chocolate flavored, which means they will be full of cream and sugar.

I don't do that.

However, I am not entirely opposed to what I've been calling "caketails" for years. This weekend, I'll be keeping it pretty simple with the Modern Spirits vodka in Pumpkin Spice flavor to serve "pumpkin pie" in a glass. The flavor is already in the vodka, so it'll be just fine to chill and pour straight up. No mixing necessary. Of course, to make it even spicier, you could also add a splash of Modern Spirits' Candied Ginger flavor, too.

I always start with the desserts for Thanksgiving. Aside from defrosting the turkey, they take a fair amount of time and can be done in advance. Getting them out of the way first frees up the oven for everything that needs to be done at the last minute. I always do a pumpkin pie in addition to a second dessert according to the tastes of the other people joining the dinner. Sometimes the second dessert is a cake or cookies and sometimes it is another pie. Last year, I made an apple pie in addition to the pumpkin and this year I'm doing a lemon tart. The tart tastes lighter (even though it is actually a bit richer) than the pumpkin pie and has a nice bright flavor that is great after a heavy meal. Pumpkin will always be my favorite, though.

The recipe is after the jump.

Over the last week or so, we got some fantastic holiday dinner ideas from a lot of our food blogging friends. First, we were inspired by turkey and stuffing recipes, and then were moved on to some delicious side dishes. No big feast would be complete without dinner rolls or some kind of bread, and so we got some wonderful ideas for breads to serve, too. As we come down to the wire for Thanksgiving, we're finishing up our little series with a look at some outstanding desserts.

• The gold standard of Thanksgiving desserts is the pumpkin pie. There are several recipes to choose from for this category, including the Accidental Hedonist's fresh pumpkin pie, a back-of-the-can pumpkin pie, or a do-it yourself pie that sill uses canned pumpkin.
• Sweet potato pie is also a favorite, and the pie at Simply Recipes has a pecan topping which will add a nicely contrastive crunch.
• You can't go wrong with apple pie, and our detailed homemade apple pie recipe shows you what every step should look like.
• The Homesick Texan shares a pecan pie recipe from her grandmother - and grandmothers almost always make the best pies.
• Elizabeth Ryan's cranberry pie (pictured) at Kitchen Chick will add a huge boost of color to your meal.
• If pies aren't your favorite, you could always opt for Alpineberry's Creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake with Ginger-Pecan Crust.
• One Whole Clove gets some chocolate into her pumpkin dessert with a Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Chocolate Glaze and Pumpkin-Chocolate Truffle Center.
• And to really impress guests, bring out Pumpkin Seed Brittle and Burnt Sugar Ice Cream from Tartelette.