Parksville and Smoked Salmon and Cake Mix Cookies

Hello everybody! Finally a new post! I didn't get a chance to post anything the past two days because I was busy packing for, and then getting to Parksville! Well I'm here now...and so incredibly happy to be. First of all...it's about +10 (alot more comfortable than -50...) and there is no snow (hello flats, goodbye [f]uggs)! Anyways that's about enough non-food talk for today, I have quite a few food-a-licious pictures from today that you must peruse!

This is actually the harbour in Naniamo, not Parksville, but that's okay. You will see Parksville pictures soon enough.

We got onto the island pretty late last night so we had to do a little grocery shopping today, but as everyone knows, grocery shopping on an empty stomach is not a good idea...so we headed into Naniamo for a little bite to eat before we went! We ended up going to Modern Cafe, where we'd never been before. It is the cutest little cafe/restaraunt! I was so excited to have found it! It's right downtown Naniamo.

To drink I had a nice cup of coffee...with a ton of cream and sugar...

They bring your water in old wine bottles, it's such a cute idea! Everything about this place was adorable! Great old brick walls, perfect lighting, pretty art, and a wonderful eclectic mix of seating (booths, cozy little coffee sipping corners, nice tall tables).

I just felt like something relatively light for lunch, so I had the smoked salmon wrap.

It was nice and light, but not at all plain! In the wrap there was: smoked salmon (obviously), spinich, red onion, deep fried wontons (such a good idea...the crunch was so yummy) and a delicious homemade garlic aioli. It came with amazing fries and a tasty little caesar! 

I had to take a picture of my Mom's halibut burger...look at the size of this thing!

I ended up having dessert too... (any excuse to linger at this wonderful little spot). I had a wonderful creation that was: tempura battered bananas served with caramel and vanilla bean ice cream. It was heavenly. 

Apparently Mod Cafe is known for their home made cheesecakes, and they have a different flavor every week. This week was cappucinno cheesecake, and that's what Ian had! I never got to have a taste (thanks, Ian) but it looked nice so I took a picture...

We browsed around the cute little shops downtown after lunch, and in one store I stumbled across this little gem: a foodie Christmas tree! Isn't it great?? All the ornaments were FOOD! I wanted to buy them all so badly...

And yes, as you can see, I have overcome my fear of taking numerous pictures in public places of odd things now! This is very good news for the blog.

So cute! After we finished browsing, we finally got around to doing the grocery shopping. When we were at our favorite grocery store...Super Store...I made sure to pick up some boxes of cake mix so I could still do a little baking with limited supplies! I picked out some things to toss into my baked goods in the bulk section too, so I could have a little variety!

I whipped up a batch of my cake mix cookies tonight, these ones I made with white cake mix, shredded coconut and chocolate chips!

These things are slowly becoming my number one favorite thing to bake...they are so fast, and tasty! And they are probably one of the cheapest cookies you can get you're hands on. $1.18 for a box of cake mix, and then just the 1/2 cup of butter or margarine, and the 2 eggs!

Anyways that is about it for my culinary adventures today! Now that we have a stocked fridge, and I'm not going anywhere for a little while, I am sure that I will be cookin' up a storm once again!

xoxo

Mariel