McGonnagle - Friend to the Molluscs

We have a standing joke in our house about Bubba Ho-Tep and his bizarre affinity for snails, or as he calls them - 'h'nails'. He got a Sally the Snail story book for Christmas, he keeps making me look up snail porn on Wikipedia and I'm even going to make him a h'nail birthday cake this July as I'm sure the fascination will have abated by next summer and, well, how can I resist the chance to make a snail-shaped cake?!
McGonnagle was never really impressed by our slimy cousins in the veg patch, until a chance encounter with a baby snail in the garden last weekend had her completely converted. Yup - this was a cute snail, not a big, slightly threatening one. She could handle snails now - why, they're almost like humans!

Here's a picture of the kids 'rescuing' a snail from the Great Outdoors. Luckily, I persuaded them to put it back outside on a lettuce leaf. They were very disappointed when - after they bolted their teas down and raced back out to see it - it had somehow mysteriously disappeared!

And what a tea, btw! After McGonnagle tripped over on her way out of the school playground tonight, banging herself up pretty well, I decided comfort food was in order - Mac n' cheeze, roasted squash, potatoes and red onion seasoned with cajun spice mix and smoked salt and steamed mange-tout.

Delicious and easy.
Me and the boy had been baking again earlier in the day - it's fun, easy to engage him in and it makes the kitchen nice and toasty!

We made the chocolate peanut butter cupcakes from 'La Dolce Vegan!' again as they are delicious, quick to make and I always have the ingredients on hand. Ho-tep helped me measure everything out, mixed the flour, switched the food processor on and off while shouting 'IT'S NOISY, MUMMAY!!', bashed the dark chocolate into chunks and sprinkled the chunks onto the cupcake batter -

well, most of them...

And what do you know? This little cupper of sweetness really did help to take away the hurt of a sore knee. Perfect!