Bonnie's Rule of Cooking #1

The holiday season is rapidly approaching, which means that many of my friends start to throw holiday potluck dinners for all of us to be together and to eat and drink and be merry. I'm also usually in a bind because I'm never given any sort of limits to what I should make, and I frequently get the "make whatever you want, it'll be delicious" (my culinary skills are held in high esteem by my friends). I also find myself wanting to challenge myself and up my skills, but I'm held up by Bonnie's Rule of Cooking #1:

Never make a recipe for company the first time you are preparing it.

More after the jump to explain my dilemma.

The issue is that I don't have the time to test out a lot of the recipes I want to try, so invariably I end up whipping them for the first time. Blargh. Thankfully the rules are flexible enough that I can get through this holiday season without poisoning anyone and/or ruining anyone's taste buds.

Happy eating, everyone!