My dad was the cook in our family. He didn’t cook because he liked it, necessarily. He just wasn’t going to drink carrot juice or eat the plain yogurt my mom ate and fed to us too. My baby brother was drinking so much carrot juice in his bottle his skin had an orange tint. If we were lucky enough to have my dad around (he traveled a lot), he actually cooked regular food. He wasn’t a bad cook, but it wasn’t until I left home that I discovered that barbequed chicken wasn’t supposed to be black. His omelets were good though, not overcooked. In fact, they were delicious —light and fluffy; he also made killer salad dressing with lemon juice instead of vinegar..

The rest of the ingredients were a mystery but not because he was trying to keep the recipe a secret. He just added or omitted ingredients depending on what was available in our kitchen at the time. Since I can ever remember there was always a jar of that salad dressing in the fridge. One summer when I was home for a couple weeks, I got out a big bowl and filled it with lettuce, celery, cucumber, tomatoes, sliced open an avocado, placed half of it on top of the lettuce and filled it with some tuna. I got out my dad’s dressing and poured it over the top. Popped a beer and headed out to the patio to enjoy my lunch. The sun was shining. I had the house to myself, paperback book under my arm, perfect setting for some quality time with lunch and my book. I sat down and dug into my salad only to discover that I had covered my salad with my mother’s cod liver oil.

The dressing for this fruit salad is unusual too but in a good way. Most fruit salads don’t have dressing at all but the crunch of poppy seeds gives it an unexpected texture along with the crisp green grapes and the sweet juicy berries. Perfect for a picnic or just lunch on the patio with your favorite book.

• 1 pint of strawberries hulled, and halved

• 1 cup each blueberries & raspberries

• 1 cup green grapes halved

• 1 large orange peeled, halved and cut into bite-sized pieces

• 1½ tablespoon canola, or safflower

• 1 teaspoon poppy seeds

• 2 teaspoons lemon zest

• 1 tablespoon honey

Instructions:

Wash and dry all the fruit and place in a large bowl. It is important for the fruit to be dry otherwise the dressing won’t stick.

In a small bowl whisk the oil and honey together. Add the poppy seeds and zest and pour over the fruit. Mix so that you can see the seeds evenly distributed. At this point you can chill it for an hour or serve it right away. This dish is best the day it is made.