When the girls were in their princess phases, I fought it. Sort of. The way I justified the merchandise that seemed to multiply by the minute was by saying that I would allow other people to buy the Belles and the Ariels for them, but I wouldn’t bring the dolls home for them myself. Fast forward not so long after to me, collapsed on bathroom floor, one hour into toilet-training session: “If you can do this, we will beeline for the Disney store and buy you one hundred Happily Ever After Princess Glamour 8-Piece Playsets.” Like all the other times I naively set rules for myself as a parent before I actually knew what I was up against (insert Disney marketing budget here) I eventually surrendered. And in fact, as I write this, I’m not even sure why it was so important to me to ban something from the house that made my children that happy.

Plus! The byproduct of all that manipulative marketing seemed to have been a total, unconditional, confounding obsession with the color pink. And that meant that when we put a piece of salmon in front of our then 3- and 5-year-olds, they liked it before they even tried it. And they still do, even though they have traded in Cinderella for Ramona, Junie B, Amelia, and Lionel Messi.

PS: Free Time for Dinner cookbook to the person who can tell me where the post’s title comes from…

Pink Princess Salmon Salad
The basic technique here is not that different from the salmon salad I wrote up in the winter. But the ingredients (and the quality of ingredients, hooray for summer!) definitely are.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Put a large platter or baking dish next to stovetop. Put a medium pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. While you wait, prepare your vegetables: chop ends off green beans, peel the husks of corn, trim asparagus, peel potatoes, chop tomatoes and cucumbers etc.

Cook Vegetables: Add vegetables in shifts to boiling water, removing each one with a slotted spoon when they are done cooking (beans: 3 minutes; asparagus: 4 minutes; corn: 7 minutes). Place each in its own row on your platter. While boiling happens, peel and chop cukes, tomatoes, any vegetable you have in the fridge and lay each in a row on the platter.

Prepare Salmon: Sprinkle a 1 1/4-pound salmon filet with salt and pepper. Roast in a foil-lined baking dish in preheated oven for 15 minutes.When it’s done (since you’re going to chop it all up you can chop right into middle of the filet and see if it’s at desired doneness) flake it with a fork and make a row of it on your platter.

Have the kids pick what they want from the platter on the table before you mix everything together and toss with a basic vinaigrette like this: 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon sugar or a squeeze of honey, 1/2 teaspoon salt, a twist of freshly ground pepper, Chopped herbs (chives, parsley, dill, thyme, whatever!) 1/2 cup good olive oil.

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