The holidays seem to always be the best testing ground for new recipes as well as new takes on the old ones. With two birthdays, three holidays, and an anniversary to celebrate between late November and the beginning of January, it seems like we are cooking and baking constantly. Through all the successes (and a few failures) we usually end up with a couple of new recipes to use when the cycle continues the following years. One of my favorites from this past year were these crisp cardamom-pistachio cookies that came about simply from seeing what we had in the pantry.