For many of us, one of the natural consequences of this past year of quarantine has been the need to cook less food. Once the shutdown took effect, all food media outlets — including The Times with our How To Boil Water series — promptly pivoted to providing recipes for one or two people. With families separated and dinner parties being a thing of the past, cooking large batches of food to share was now unnecessary, even dangerous. But as someone who has a pathological inability to cook small meals, it was the one part of our new world I couldn’t adapt to.
Growing up in a Southern family, big meals were the norm. Every meal for my nuclear family of four provided enough food for eight. Each Sunday, when we drove to my grandmother’s rural home for post-church lunch, there was enough fried chicken, collard greens, cornbread and
