As soon as winter turns its sorry, frigid back, the local cafés start putting insalata di riso on their lunch menu. It’s usually the first thing that sells out. It’s easy to see why: versatile, colourful, delicious. Quick to make in massive batches, then watch as it gets gobbled up.

You’ve got to make it well though, in my opinion. I’ve eaten a few frights where the rice has been too hard and the amount of non-rice ingredients too stingy, or simply too boring. There is a ‘classic’ Italian version (isn’t there always), but I think this is one of those dishes where you can flex a little creativity. Anything goes as long as you have colour, a little crunch, a few different textures, and a good balance of salty, sweet and acidic.

Some ideas include:
colour - sweetcorn, peas, beetroot, avocado, bell peppers, carrots, asparagus
crunch - sunflower seeds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds. raw vegetables.
saltiness - olives, capers, cheese
sweetness - sweetcorn, beetroot, peas
acidity/tang/pungency - gherkins, sundried tomatoes, spring onions, olives, preserved lemon, chives
non-veg additions - tuna, cooked ham, crispy pancetta, shredded roast chicken, prawns

That said, there are a few ‘rules’:
1. For safety reasons, be sure to cool the rice quickly and thoroughly, and store the salad in the fridge
2. A 50-50 ratio for rice to non-rice is good, to avoid the salad being too stodgy
3. Avoid ‘wet’ ingredients like fresh tomatoes, to avoid the salad going soggy
4. All the non-rice ingredients must be chopped into cubes or sliced very thinly.

Other than that, go mad! My version is certainly 'imaginative' by Italian standards...

Italian-style Insalata di Riso (Rice Salad)

Serves: 4
Pots/pans to be washed up afterwards: 1, plus a baking tray and a salad bowl
Prep time: 10-20 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins 

Ingredients:
300 g rice (short or long grain, but not too sticky)
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
1 beetroot, cubed
a few gherkins, cubed
1 tin of sweetcorn
4-5 radishes, thinly sliced
handful of sundried tomatoes, chopped
150 g firm cheese, cubed (emmentaler, provolone, cheddar)
avocado, cubed
handful of fresh herbs, finely chopped (parsley, oregano, dill, marjoram)
pumpkin seeds, toasted
olive oil
black pepper
sea salt

Boil the rice until al dente, then spread immediately in an oven dish or baking tray to help it to cool down quickly.

While the rice is cooking and then cooling, chop all your other ingredients and put them together in a bowl. Treat them as a salad that needs to be balanced and well-dressed: check for colour and taste for crunch, add a little olive oil and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper.

When you’re happy with the salad and the rice has cooled, combine everything well. 

Serve at room temperature with the avocado and pumpkin seeds sprinkled over the top. Great with a glass of white wine at a BBQ…

You know those dishes that sound fine in your head, but turn out looking like sick on the plate? I'm eating one of those (buried under grated cheese).

You know those days when you try to work, but all you see is Blah, bleeh, blah-bleh-blabla-blooh on the screen? Had that all morning.

You know when you walk into the shower with your glasses still on, and your brain says oi! I think you forgot to switch something on up here. Yep, it had to so today. 

I may be a little tired. Can't think why. In the last three weeks we've only packed in two flights, three long car journeys, one spring clean, two sleepovers, one guest, one day trip, and countless hours of toddler entertainment over the Italian bank holiday bonanza...

It's strange, we've had loads of fun, I'm happy, I feel invincible. But this morning my back went *PING* and later I ended up with a pile of slop on my plate. Not so invincible, then.

So I think this week I'll be taking it a little easier. No solo hauling of boxes into the loft, no ambitious batch-cooking plans. Which is just as well, because pasta-deluge is rolling around at the Bean's nursery again next week and I'll need some serious inspiration to deal with it.

Actually, I’m completely lying - letting the Bean get stuck into a beach isn’t something we ordinarily manage to do at all, but I don’t care. We had a great day, and it’s my blog. 

So.
A Sunday by the beach with commentary by the Bean, mostly at foghorn-volume level:

A tram ride - oooo TAM!!!
A train ride - (a little lump of silence in my arms, felled by a particularly soporific baby einstein video)
Panini with cheese - TEEEEZZ!
BEACH BEACH BEACH BEACH - ooooo TONE (stones), WAWA (water), Uh-oh (stones accidentally-on-purpose thrown in every direction)
Ice cream - AH-AH-AH-AH-AH (oi! Share!)
Another train ride - (no sleep, but total meltdown. Ho hum)
Another tram ride - (fidget fidget fidget)
Pasta with tomatoes - PAPPA
Collapse...

For the record, it wasn’t a coastal beach, this. ‘t was a tiny stretch of pebbles by Lake Como and it takes two hours of public transport-sponsored torture (local train, bijjillion tourists, hot hot hot) to get there. That’s why this doesn’t happen very often. 

I felt like such a cheapskate, carting back our sticky, sweaty, knackered Bean on the train instead of in an air-conditioned car. I noticed the sideways glances of Italian parents when I let the him dip his bare feet into the freezing cold water (essentially melted snow), their children still zipped up in jackets and covered with woolly hats. I cringed under the glares on the tram, as overtiredness turned him into a flailing gremlin. 

But I don't care, it's my child. So. He loves trams and trains. It was 23° C and gloriously sunny. And by golly we had a great day. 

Having waxed lyrical about how much I love washable nappies, I suppose it would have made sense to write something along the lines of “which cloth nappy is best” for part II of my Crackers for Cloth series.

Not a chance though - we do have our favourites, but there are far too many choices out there and I’m nowhere near qualified to help on that front! 

If you want to get into cloth nappies but don't know where to start, here’s who you should talk to instead: Wendy from The Nappy Lady. Fill in her advice form (for free) and you’ll be fine*. This is also a very good blog post on the various types of nappies that are currently available.

Once you’ve got your cloth nappies, there are a few things you can do to get the best out of them. Non-cloth converts generally think that using cloth nappies is a hassle, but it really doesn’t need to be. Essentially, it’s about getting a streamlined routine down, as well as using a few simple props and tricks.