Today was the first day of staying home. It’s not exactly a quarantine, as no one here is sick. (At least not that we know of.) No, it’s more of a sheltering in place. A battening down of the hatches. A hunkering. A bunkering.

And I’ve decided I’m going to write about it. Although this is a food and cooking website, this won’t be a recipe blog. I will share cooking tips and strategies here, but I’ll also share thoughts and discoveries about parenting, managing a household through this, and keeping my business afloat. And surviving together.

For now, my plan is to publish approximately once a day. As things wear on, I expect it to become less frequent.

Since we’re all seeing less of each other for now, maybe this can still be one way for us to stay connected. Plus, as a former stay-at-home mom turned work-from-home business owner and professional cook, my experiences might spark helpful ideas and insights for you.

But at the very least, it’s a way to share. And be together.

Because we are in this together.

Breakfast on Day 1:

My husband made a quick cereal breakfast for himself and the kids before I could get my fancy-pants breakfast act together.

So for myself, I made some egg toasts, a favorite go-to. It’s a major leftover strategy, so will come in very handy for this staying-at-home situation. My tips for egg-toast perfection:

• Good bread makes a big difference.

• After toasting, immediately slather the bread with butter or oil (faster = better). If you’re not using salted butter, sprinkle a little salt over the toast after the butter or oil (sea salt is perfect if you have it).

• A cheese layer is good. Depending on the other toppings it could be thinly sliced cheddar, shaved parmesan, goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, whatever. Also depending, you could either put it directly on the hot toast, or sprinkle it over the veggies. Today, I schmeared fresh ricotta cheese onto the toast.

• For the veggie layer, it could be just about anything as long as it’s in small pieces that can be easily eaten with a fork. Today I used leftover kale+chickpeas salad that I had bought ready-made at Whole Foods on a recent shopping trip and hadn’t finished.

• I usually fry the eggs - to me that’s the quickest/easiest prep and cleanup. I like the yolks nice and runny, so they run all over the other ingredients as you eat. Remember to season the eggs with plenty of salt and pepper.

(PS - If you’re new around here, welcome! Adventure Kitchen is a local, small-batch maker of original spice blends and prepared foods, and I’m the founder and chief creator. Separately, I send a weekly email with recipes and cooking suggestions. If you’d like to follow along with that, you can sign up on this page. And if you’d like to support my small business, you can buy our spices online. We ship everywhere of course, and we deliver locally for free!)