Yes. I learned to cook from a German grandmother who
cooked for field hands (she called them the "threshers") during the depression. She only knew how to make mass quantities of the dishes in her repetoire. Food = Love. So the more food, the more love. Every dinner always included enough food to feed 3-4 times the number of people eating, because one never knew who might just drop in. But the most florid example was her holiday feasts. It is no exageration to say that she prepared enough food to feed 100 people a normal restuarant-sized meal for the less than 20 people who were there to eat ("Go fill your plate up again! I can't even miss what's been taken off the table!" was her frequent refrain). The leftovers were doled out and eaten (joyfully) for the next week.
I find it very difficult to cook in small quantities. I can do it for myself, but I eat very oddly when I'm alone. But I run and plan the kitchen well, so there is virtually no waste. I plan on the extra to make lunches through the week, quick weeknight dinners, and packages for the freezer to pull out when there is not time.
I don't buy lunch meat at the deli. I buy turkeys, beef and pork roasts, and hams to make the Sunday dinner. I cook these, then have wonderful stocks to put away, and then have left over very high quality lunch meats with no processing or chemicals. Packs are made and frozen. And I pay 1/4 the price of that awful stuff they slice up at the deli.
I'm also extremely versatile at transforming leftovers into all sorts of completely unrecognizable new dishes.
So yes, I cook for armies, but I've learned to adapt and go with the flow. I just give myself free rein on the weekends and then spend the week using the excess. Works for me.
