My husband : "That cheesecake thing is a bust". Me : "But the random dude on Instagram said it was a 10/10."

Hmmm. I guess this looks vaguely like a Basque cheesecake. That is, however, where the similarity ends. It also looks vaguely like an ancient leather slipper. 

This is one of those 4-ingredient high-protein marvels that Instagram loves. And it's fine if you want a rather tasteless spongey protein thing to ingest. If you want cheesecake, use cheese.

I really hate wasting food, so I am going to have to curb my enthusiasm for Instagram.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 and 1/2 cups of plain yogurt
• 5 tablespoons of corn starch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Methods: 

Mix everything well and place the batter in a lined loaf tin. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.

Drizzle the finished product with honey or maple syrup or smother with jam.

Scottish Oat Cakes

I think I might have to use my oat cakes as a crumble topping. They were not quite right, likely because I decided to use oat flour rather than all-purpose white flour. Delicious though.

This is my sister Sylvia's recipe for oat cakes. I happen to love the texture and taste of anything oaty. 

Ingredients:

• 2-plus cups of old-fashioned oats or regular oatmeal (Syl thinks she might have used 3)
• 1 cup all purpose flour (I used a cup of oat flour instead)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
• 1/4 cup boiling water

Methods:

Preheat your oven to 350 F. 

Mix the dry ingredients together then add the shortening. Pulse the mixture using a few pulses in a food processor. Alternatively, you can cut in the shortening with a pastry cutter. Then add the boiling water and mix until a dough comes together. Let the dough rest for a few minutes. Form into a flat rectangle on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and mark squares, or form into balls and flatten. Try 6 per baking sheet. They spread.

Bake for about 12 minutes. Cool completely. 

My sister said this recipe made 16 large round biscuits. 

You can see from the photo above that I baked mine in a cookie sheet (8 x 12 inch). They were too thick so I needed to bake them longer and they were too tender so tended to fall apart. Just ignore me and follow my sister's recipe. 

Making it edible. The concept of kale massage.

Kale is one tough vegetable. It is basically off-limits for those with missing or crumbling teeth. Sauteeing the kale definitely acts to soften it, but then it's really cooked. If you want to eat raw kale and not choke on it, there is a way. It's called massage, and like a regular back massage, it involves oil, hands and rubbing. 

Cut the kale into small bite-sized pieces after washing and drying it. Place in a serving bowl and add a couple of tablespoons of oil and a dash of coarse salt, then using clean hands start rubbing. After a minute or two, you will notice the structure of the kale has broken down and it has darkened in colour. Add whatever fresh veggies you want to make a salad. Dress with lemon juice or vinegar, and more salt and oil as needed. 

I was introduced to massaged kale by a friend who combined kale and mango to make a salad. I highly recommend it.