One-pot synthesis

"One-pot synthesis" refers to the strategy of synthesizing a particular chemical compound by carrying out all of the necessary reactions in a single reactor. One-pot synthesis forgoes the more complicated, time-intensive intermediate separation and purification processes employed by other synthesis methods, while yielding the same (or better) results. In this way, it can save chemists the big bucks.

This is what I call it when I stick half a pound of dry pasta in a pot with a handful of mushrooms, another of onions, and another of ribbon-sliced kale; add four cups of chicken stock and some pressed garlic and freshly-ground black pepper, bring to a boil and hold at simmer for eight minutes, remove from heat, stir in a handful of grated cheese, let stand until thickened, and serve.

Some people could argue that the One Pot Synthesis style of cooking is suitable only for poor and/or lazy college students and trendy moms. I disagree. To me, cooking is more than just a means to get food ready for consumption. It can be art, a whole way of living and even therapy of some kind: focusing on one recipe can make wonders.

The One Pot Synthesis, to me, has several zen-like teachings that may well be useful beyond the kitchen/alchemy lab:

1. If you're only cooking one dish, it should be enough both in quantity and quality. The quantity aspect is rather easy, as it's directly related to how much you have of each ingredient; but when it comes to quality, you have to ensure that your only dish will suffice in terms of nutrition. Thus, a good one-pot cook will incorporate ingredients that contain as many nutrients as possible. If you only have one life, be sure to include a bit of everything on it
2. Use what you need, but nothing more. One of the most attractive features of this cooking style is that it will have substantially less dishes to be washed than other recipes. If you don't use many pots, you won't have to wash many pots, only those strictly needed for your purpose. This translates (in a way) to having only as much stuff and problems as needed, but no more. Jumping in few problems will lead to getting out of few problems
3. Simple solutions. As you know, it's easy to come up with a complicated solution, but it's complicated to come up with a simple one. You have to resolve all your troubles (different cooking times, for example) using only one pot. Thus, every minute you spend thinking about how to make the process simpler will later save you hours of getting a complicated plan to fruition. In the same way, it's better to think a while to come up with simple solutions than to jump right in with complicated solutions that might end up taking too much time.
4. Humility. Cooking everything in one pot will often lead to having leftovers for one or more days, which in turn translates to two or more days of eating the same food. Rather than this being a nuisance, it's a blessing to have food in advance for several days (even more considering how many people can't afford that luxury). In a similar way, many of the things we consider as routine are actually blessings in disguise, and one should treat them as such.