I always use a good brand of plain canned pumpkin for my punkin’ pies too. Works great.
Also makes a good starting point for a semi-spicy cream of pumpkin soup I make sometimes. (as long as I remember to make sure it’s the plain pumpkin and not the pre-spiced pie filling kind, LOL.)
My wife sometimes makes a pumpkin chiffon pie similar, if not identical, to this one: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Chiffon-Pie-I/Detail.aspx
I like a nice pumpkin custard pie as well as the next guy, but a pie that has most of the flavor and is a little lighter after stuffing myself with turkey and all of the fixings is kind of appealing.