Make the dressing for the salad by whisking together ½ tsp Dijon mustard, 2 ½ tsp cider vinegar, 4 tbsp walnut oil, 1 tbsp olive oil (not extra-virgin), and ½ tsp crème de cassis. Season to taste.

Before I transformed into an up-at-five, in-bed-at-nine, grow-my-own-food kind of gal, I spent my evenings at home in front of the stove. I peeled, minced, braised, seared and stewed, but you’d rarely ...