Imagine a Calgary street festival that celebrates cycling culture, with tons of live music from local bands, fitness and yoga classes, belly dancing, bike tune-ups and workshops, a kids area, mandala painting, a fun bike procession AND a slow bike race with five Olympic athletes, all along the length of a beautiful river. You’ve just imagined Bow River Flow, as planned for this Sunday, August 21^st.

This is the third year for the festival, which takes place largely along Memorial Drive, and which is designed to get communities out on their bike, skateboard or scooter, celebrating local culture, and re-envisioning how we use public spaces, like roads.

All you’re consuming is the experience – it’s not a shopping event; it’s totally non-commercialized, without a vendor in sight. That lends a really different dynamic to the day, putting the focus squarely on fun activities and meeting people in your community – and celebrating human-powered transportation!

Check out these two amazing books on feats of human-powered travel:

Beyond the Horizon: the Great Race to Finish the First Human-Powered Circumnavigation of the Planet by Colin Angus

Pedaling to Hawaii: A Human-Powered Odyssey by Stevie Smith

May 20-May 22

Aqaba! We left our “home” in Cairo to much good wishes on both sides; lovely Hotel Longchamps and its friendly, delightful owner and staff (e.g., when we got back to the hotel from Alexandria our bags were already in our room!).

Our guide from the desert was waiting for us at 8 am, with another driver and a far less “robust” vehicle.

We wanted to see the Suez Canal, but it’s a military zone and you can only see it if you’re in it! We tried to take a side road to a view point but (likely due to tensions withIsrael and Palestine) were turned back. You cross the canal via a tunnel and then (now in Asia) it really is a different place: men were differently dressed (in more Saudi-type robes), it was a lot sandier. We drove southwards with the coast on our right. Beautiful blue-green sea. Every few miles there was an attempt at a resort development, either hotels or houses, we couldn’t really tell. A few looked occupied but most looked more optimistic than actual. I read a newspaper article about the Egyptian real estate bust and maybe this was part of it…

On we went into the mountains in Sinai. Fortunately top speed wasn’t so high, since the driving was ok but no more! Lots of windy roads as we gained height. Not much other traffic. We reached Saint Catherine’s around 4 pm. It was Friday and the monastery is only open for 2 hours on Fridays. We spent the afternoon wandering around the small town of Saint Catherine’s, which obviously owes everything to the tourists who come to the monastery and to climb Mount Sinai(which we did not do!). There were plenty of small boys asking for hand-outs, and some sweet girls who were not…We actually shared our hotel with a group of young Austrians; not very wonderful buffet dinner and breakfast…

Before we left Cairo we’d looked up in the guidebook and Internet about the ferry from Nuweiba to Aqaba – and it wasn’t very optimistic, especially about running on Saturdays (you’d think, and we had, that Fridays would be the “dodgy” day – apparently not!). Anyway, we mentioned this to our guide, and the alternatives of a shorter ferry from Taba or trying the land route through Israel. Initially he was not in favour of the latter (maybe due to the volatile situation), and he called friends in Nuweiba to check, and later that evening went down himself to check out the situation. Next morning he said we should try the land route since there was only the slow ferry which may or may not leave at 3 or 4 pm.

We left the hotel soon after 8 am but the monastery doesn’t open till 9 am. We had total tourist shock as there were more tourists crowding into the forecourt than we’d seen in all the other sights put together!!! And we were told usually there are several thousand visitors a day. The whole experience was frankly disappointing: we queued, shuffled around the church in semi-darkness, looked at icons, listened to rude tourists and ruder orthodox monks telling tourists and tour leaders off. We saw Moses’s well and the “burning bush” (it wasn’t!), admired the old walls of the monastery and that was it.

A short drive took us down to the coast and to Nuweiba which looked dead, then we turned north to Taba. Lots of deserted and lovely-looking beaches on the Red Sea and again some sad-looking resort-attempts. We agreed to pay an additional $75 (although strictly speaking it’s likely they would have driven that way back toCairo anyway – no big deal!). Suddenly there was the border! We said fond farewells and they volunteered to wait 30 minutes in case there was a problem. So, 12:15 leave mini-van; we paid 2 Egyptian Pounds each (6 to the Can $), filled in a form with a stamp, walked through a large a/c hall and were out of Egypt. We put away our Canadian passports and pulled out our British ones. A shortish walk in the heat, multiple questions by multiple friendly Israeli officials (mostly young women in tight jeans and short-sleeved shirts; Anna thought they were there as deliberate provocation!) and the first proper x-raying of our bags (a supervisor had to be asked about the hammer!) – and we were in Israel at 1:00. There were 2 taxis waiting, we jumped in one and for $25 US he drove us through Eilat to the Jordanian border. Here we had to pay 101 shekels each (no idea how much that was; they took Visa!) for the transit visa, then another short walk. This time (since we already had our Jordanian visas in the Canadian passports) all they wanted from us was a retina scan – really; never had one of those before! Into the parking lot, and this time the taxi was a lot more expensive - $45 US, but our hotel is at the very southern tip of Jordan’s Red Sea coast; in fact, we’re only 5 minutes away from the Saudi border…Checked in to the hotel around 3:15-ish! Later that evening we might have seen the slow ferry crossing the sea, but by then we’d rented masks and fins, had our first snorkle (absolutely amazing corals!), swam in the pool, booked dives and were about to eat dinner. Our hotel is rather disappointing (except for its location on the beach and the lovely bougainvillea bushes), most noticeably its meals: the only offering was a fixed meal with choice of steak or fish fingers!!! We pushed a little and out came a feast of tabouli, tahine, egg plant and tahine dip (not called babaganoush here!), tomatoes and cucumbers and a local specialty of ground meat cooked in tomatoes, onions, garlic and other yummies!

This morning Anna and Colin went for their dive and I snorkled, then arranged for the Thrifty dealer to drop the car off here rather than me going to them (much more intelligent!). We met for lunch, then they did their 2^nd dive and I did the car. Once in my hands I went into Aqaba to try and change our Egyptian pounds and some dollars. I stopped outside the Intercontinental compound and they would have let me in once they had checked the under-side of the car with a mirror on a pole, but the attendant told me I’d get a better rate at an exchange, and he gave me (perfect!) instructions to get there. Aqaba is small; the local housing area looks small; the largest industries are the huge hotels (2 Movenpicks, Intercontinental and others) and the huge container port). I got back to our hotel avoiding a police check stop (obviously white women driving rental cars are ok), and driving into the naval base next door to our hotel – just as Colin and Anna finished their dive. A nice lazy afternoon of reading/snorkeling/swimming. We’re going to look for a nice fish restaurant for dinner (it was well-recommended!). Off tomorrow to Wadi Rum.

What are those sparkly crystals adorning those stunning chocolate cookies? Fleur de sel. Ha ha ha! When you stop laughing, consider this. A fudgey, gooey biscuit grows up and puts on a sprinkling of fine, pure salt as a study in contrasts. You've seen it on fancy chocolates. You put it on grilled fish. It's the reigning queen of salt and, yowzer, does it do wonders for this cookie! Fleur de sel is the surprise ingredient in this fine offering and I urge you to give it a go.

You may not realize this, but it is the magic of salt that gives foods the tastes we come to love. "Salt is the single most important ingredient in cooking and the single most powerful tool for improving the flavour of food" says Mark Bitterman in his book Salted - A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes. Think of that tomato and the heights to which salt can elevate its tomato-ness. Or pan-fried potatoes and the lingering memory of the crispy, browned bits basking in a little sea salt. Baking requires salt for maximum flavour too, as you can see in all sweet recipes. Salt rounds out flavours and makes everything taste better. So, why not celebrate it and let it shine a bit more? And, in doing so, let's bring out the gold standard, fleur de sel, harvested from the sea by hand into crunchy beds off of the coast of France. Fleur del sel is light, flaky, pure and it will anoint your food with a finishing touch that will last in your memory, a clean bright waft of sea air. In these cookies, fleur de sel sits inside the dough as well, permeating the mouth with an even more punchy chocolate experience, and then dotting the tongue with a final, pleasant reminder.

The proliferation of food writing means that cooking and baking ideas spread and mutate and morph. This cookie is a stellar example. New York baker extraordinaire Dorie Greenspan took inspiration from Parisian pastry chef Pierre Herme. I, in turn, take my lead from Dorie, trusting her inclusion of salt crystals to bring midnight dark chocolate to greater heights. But, she rolls her dough into logs and slices cookies for baking, where I add a few drops of cold coffee to moisten the dough to allow for forming balls. My result is a crispy/chewy, crackled, salted beauty, the little crevices allowing for a peak into the deep heart of this chocolate sensation. This is what it means to create in the kitchen, tweaking, thinking, adapting, following, altering, modifying, enriching. I took this devilishly delicious cookie to where I wanted it, where the dough held together for me and allowed me to form uniform, round mounds of rich decadence. Where Dorie's dough felt dry and crumbly to me, I tweaked her recipe and made it work my way. All the flavour Dorie promises is there, the salt exalting our senses in a playful surprise.

Dorie calls these World Peace Cookies because her neighbour Richard Gold, upon tasting them, claimed that a daily dose is all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness. Imagine if we could really test that concept.

Fleur de Sel Chocolate Cookies
adapted from Dorie Greenspan's recipe for World Peace Cookies

1+1/4 cups all-purpose flour; 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder; 1/2 tsp. baking soda; 11 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature; 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar; 1/4 cup granulated sugar; 1/2 tsp. fleur de sel or 1/4 tsp. fine sea salt; 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract; approximately 2 tbsp. cold coffee, enough to moisten the dough so that it holds together when pinched; 3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks or chips.

Sift flour, cocoa and baking soda together. In a large mixing bowl beat butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, salt and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes more. Add dry ingredients and pulse mixer at low speed about 5 times to prevent the flour from flying around. Mix for about 30 seconds more, just so the flour disappears. If mixture appears dry and crumbly, add coffee a teaspoon at a time until the dough holds together when pinched.

Chill dough in the fridge overnight, wrapped well in plastic wrap. When you are ready to bake the cookies, centre a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat oven to 325 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. With a tablespoon, scoop out balls of dough and roll in your hands until rounded. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet and flatten balls slightly with the palm of your hand. Bake one sheet at a time for about 12 minutes or until set at the edges, puffed and crackled, but still soft. Cool on a rack and store in a covered container.

Let Dorie Greenspan be your capable and inspiring guide in the kitchen:

Have you ever heard of global buckets? I hadn’t, until I was at an event at the Area, a great new community space in Inglewood. While a band played, and a campfire crackled, a friend took me over to a line of buckets, out of which grew various veggies. The neat thing about global buckets is that they require very little water, because they are irrigated from the bottom (less evaporation), and they are all connected with a tube, so all you have to do is water one bucket, and atmospheric pressure will ensure every bucket (and every plant) has water.

Check out the website by the two teenagers who thought up the idea, as a way to grow food cheaply and anywhere.

This Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday at 11:00 a.m. Robert McWilliam, a local permaculture enthusiast will be hosting a free workshop on building Global Buckets at the Old Y Community Centre. Check it out, meet some new friends and enjoy the Old Y’s new backyard patio and garden! Email philip_mcc@hotmail.com for more details.

Learn how to garden affordably and using containers with these books:

The Small Budget Gardener: All the Dirt on Saving Money in Your Garden by Maureen Gilmer

Garden Anywhere: How to Grow Gorgeous Container Gardens, Herb Gardens, Kitchen Gardens, and more – Without Spending a Fortune by Alys Fowler

Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers by Edward C. Smith

It's summer time and the living is easy. Someone said that once. It makes sense to me. It's time to bask in the kaleidoscope of colours at the produce stands. And then time to come home and put together something to eat that is fresh and fast. I did just that. The blueberries were plump and tempting, a perfect mango beckoned with its heady perfume, firm stalks of corn awaited discovery. Long, thin beans, bold peppers, slim green onions, I found them all today and made this bright delight to enjoy with some grilled wild salmon.

Let's start with the quinoa and what one does with it. There are different techniques for cooking quinoa and I am going with this one from trusty Saveur magazine.

How to Cook Quinoa Perfectly
adapted from www.saveur.com

1 cup quinoa, rinsed well and drained; 1 tsp. salt

In a 4-litre pot, bring 6 cups of water and 1 tsp. salt to a boil. Add quinoa and simmer 12-15 minutes until tender and grains have bloomed. Remove from heat and drain quinoa in a fine mesh sieve. Set sieve back over empty pot, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and let rest 15 minutes. Serves 4 people.

Quinoa Salad

Next, if you would like to construct a summer salad, you need some vegetables. I used about a cup and a half each of fresh green beans, cut into small pieces, cherry tomatoes, quartered and fresh corn kernals. I cooked the green beans and the corn until tender and drained them well. Tossed them into the bowl of quinoa I had waiting on the side along with the tomatoes, seeds pressed out lightly, by the way. I toasted a cup of sliced almonds and included them in my creation along with about 6 green onions, sliced into small rounds and two jalapenos, diced, for a hit of heat. Fruit and quinoa get along beautifully and I was after some big time colour, so in went a mango, diced and about 3/4 cup of fresh blueberries. I made a simple dressing with almond oil, fresh lemon juice and the zest of that same lemon, adding salt and pepper, a bit of cayenne and a pinch of raw sugar to taste. The only thing missing was a big handful of fresh herbs from my garden, mint, chives and oregano, adding lush freshness and speckles of green.

My quinoa creation was a perky foil for the rich, delicate meat of the wild salmon, cutting the density of the fish with bursts of fruit and a friendly jolt of peppery heat. It is a salad I will play with and adapt all summer long, as the fruit season delivers its wares. I am looking forward to tender, young zucchini, diced and gently cooked. Corn will continue to appear and will get better as the summer progresses, as will peppers and beans. Parsley and dill, cilantro and thyme, all will play roles.

Keep your summer meals easy and fresh: