Dermatologist, The Rising Dough,

Went to see the dermatologist today and Matt has two more basel cells to be treated. He will be

seeing the same plastic surgeon he saw before. The dermatologist also froze a few places on his face, places he said were trying to become cancerous. As I said before, we just didn't know, when we were young, how dangerous the sun could be. The Vitamin D it provides is so good for us and so necessary, but we don't need to spend hours in the sun to get it. There are published statistics telling one how much sun we should take. Most of us used to lie out there trying to get a tan and many of us didn't both with sun tan creams, didn't think we needed them. As kids we didn't lie out but we played in the sun all day long. We didn't spend time indoors watching TV (well it wasn't really available) or using cell phones and such. Not been invented. So if it wasn't raining we were mostly outside.  I still sit in the sun for a while during the summer, but rarely for more than half an hour at a time and  these days all the face creams and skin creams are full of sun blocs of one kind or another.

In the same building as the doctor which is called The Grist Mill Centre, at street level, there is a store called The Rising Dough Bakery where I like to go to buy Cornish Pasties. Unfortunately they only had a couple and I wanted four. They said they would be another 10 minutes or so. Decided to sit and have coffee ($1.60 - I thought that was a lot) and wait. I have never really looked at everything they carry before and found it interesting. Liquorish Allsorts which I haven't eaten since I was a child, TCP antiseptic which made me think of Hilary's uncle. Scotts Porridge Oats, many British candies of one kind or another. Many other things which I don't recall now. The Allsorts packet was marked with a price of £1 which I thought was a lot, I asked how much they sold for here, about $5 I was told. Not cheap. OK, I know the stuff has to be imported. In the end I got my 4 pasties, as well as 4 wholewheat raisin scones and a couple of jars of clotted cream. We had a couple of scones for our mid afternoon snack and a couple of the pasties for supper. Boy were they ever good. I have made scones many times, although not for years, but never had wholewheat before. In my opinion these are best served warm but it's a matter of choice. You can just cut them in half and slather with butter or you can do the whole Cornwall/Devon thing and have jam and thick clotted cream on them. No I just buttered mine.


Wholewheat Raisin Scones

Makes 12 small scones

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
Scant 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 cup oatmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 oz unsalted butter (5 tbs)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. Stir in oatmeal. Rub in butter, or place in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle and beat at low speed, or pulse in a food processor, until incorporated. Add buttermilk and raisins and mix just until dough comes together. Transfer to a lightly floured work surface and gently shape into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Cut either into 2-inch circles with a biscuit cutter or into 6 squares, then cut each square in half on the diagonal. Transfer to baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes, until browned on the bottom. Flip over, bake 2 more minutes, and remove from the heat. Serve warm or allow to cool.

These freeze very well too.


Have a great day