For some reason, it’s even harder than normal to coax Son and Heir to the supermarket without excessive whinging during school holidays. It’s like he expects to be tortured with the mundane during term time but holidays should be constant razzle dazzle. Dream on sunshine. He’s still only a pre-schooler too, heaven help me.

A couple of weeks ago, he was a given a little cookbook, heavily branded by Disney’s Ratatouille. His beloved Papa gave it to him and to make it a bit more special, it was Papa who took him to the movie last year. He’s been dying to make something from it and we just haven’t had a chance. Today was the day.

First he got to go through the book while I got ready to select his recipes. He wanted to make lunch and afternoon tea. We checked for ingredients and updated the shopping list. Now the supermarket had relevance and all were happy to go. The kids took charge of their shopping, getting the right things off the shelves and putting them in our bags. Then to the green grocer and they selected their items there too.

By the time we got home, it was time to make lunch. We made rat pizzas. The recipe called for English muffins but they always have that rotten preservative 282 in them. We used organic spelt flat breads instead.

Afternoon tea was the highlight. The recipe Son and Heir has been looking forward to making since he got the book. Snails.

How cute are they?