This is a fine tradition in my family. The old family tale is that for my christening my mom made sloppy joes. A lot of sloppy joes. Enough that after serving 12 people, she froze the leftovers which were then served at Christmas. And then New Years. And for years after when my mother would invite my godparents to dinner, they would say "Are we having sloppy joes?" Then potatoes. Every Thanksgiving my mother would buy a 5 lb bag of potatoes and make them all into mashed potatoes. It's a lot of potatoes. And the macaroni salad. She decided to make a macaroni salad for a 4th of July one year. She quadrupled the recipe (first problem) and didn't notice until it was too late that the measurements were for cooked macaroni, not dry, so the quadrupled recipe was really more like octupled (if that's even a word!) The irony to all of this is that my mother hates leftovers. Not even cold pizza. She just won't eat them. I am much better than my mom with food proportions. I usually end up making just enough for what's needed, with maybe lunch for the husband next day left over. Except for mashed potatoes. While I don't make a 5lb bag, I usually end up with ... a lot.
