Maybe you, like me, have been thinking a lot about old friends, wondering how they’re doing. This weekend I began to wonder (okay, worry) about my friend Sarah, who lives in Spain with her two teenage daughters.

Sarah and I worked side by side as editors at Fine Cooking magazine for many years and developed the kind of in-the-trenches friendship that’s unbreakable. On Sunday we exchanged emails, and I was relieved to hear that she and her kids are doing okay.

Later that afternoon, a dreary and damp one here on the Vineyard, I made Sarah’s Chocolate Toast, a recipe for a traditional Spanish after-school snack. Sarah’s version has a twist — olive oil and sea salt — that she picked up from chef José Andrés (yes, the same Andrés who is always first to feed the hungry in a national disaster).

I shared my chocolate toast with my partner, of course, to try to calm his cabin fever. We ate, and all was right with the world — for a short time. I’m hoping chocolate toast can do the same for you.

(If not, then Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Fudge Brownies?)