When we started testing recipes for "Queen of Spices," the cardamom feature in our April 2010 issue, I was inspired to pull out another cardamom-based recipe that I learned to make here in the office: the cardamom-buttermilk pie from our Thanksgiving feature in the November 2007 issue. I first made this pie the year we ran the recipe (which came to us from Lynne Rossetto Kasper, the host of the radio show The Splendid Table), and it has been a holiday staple at my house ever since. A couple of weeks ago I made it again, for no special occasion at all, using buttermilk I had left over after making Suzanne Goin's buttermilk dressing from the March 2010 issue and, I have to admit, a good-quality premade pie crust because I didn't have the time to start from scratch. I don't think my shortcut mattered; the pie was every bit as creamy and delicious as I remembered, and the friends who came over to help me eat it wouldn't leave until I'd promised to give them all the recipe.