A very Lana Valentine's

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's day! Mine was the perfect mix of fancy and relaxed. After celebrating both mine and Adam's birthday in the last month, we generally stay pretty basic on Valentine's day. We'll usually go to dinner somewhere new, but the majority of our time is spent lounging.

This year Adam surprised me with dinner at Lana. I have not yet been to Lana, but I've heard some incredible things. And thankfully, the restaurant met it's expectations. Lana describes itself as Mediterranean Fare with Southern Flair. 

We skipped any sort of appetizer/salad and went straight to the main course. I wanted to save as much room in my stomach as possible. I ordered the Duck. It was prepared two ways, as a crispy duck breast and a leg confit. The duck was incredible. In the last year I've fallen in love with duck as a meat. I think it has such a great rich taste that can be perfectly tender when cooked correctly. Duck that isn't well prepared has the tendency to be a little greasy, but this wasn't the case at all at Lana. It was perfect. The right amount of crispy and tender. Adam placed his SNOB meal last weekend in his top 3, I can say confidently that the duck from Lana is now in my top 3 meals.

After dinner we headed back to my house and topped the night off with some television and cookies. We fancy, huh?

Y'all my be sweeted-out (word?), but I have to share the recipe for this incredible cookies. They're called Amazing Cookies, and my roommate has made about 8000 batches of them in the last week. She's trying to kill me. I love/hate her for all of these cookies. I've had cookies somewhat similar that'll be called Everything Cookies or Monster Cookies, but I'm telling you - stick with this recipe and you'll be golden. 

Jodi Raccuia's Amazing Cookies

3 sticks of butter room temperature

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 TBL baking powder

1 TBL baking soda

3 cups all purpose flour

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

3 cups old fashioned oats

2 cups sweetened coconut

2 cups well chopped pecans

In large bowl at medium speed beat butter until creamy. Add sugars. Beat well for about a minute. Add vanilla and eggs, beat again. Add salt, cinnamon, baking powder and soda. Mix to combine. Add flour and mix well. Stir in oats, coconut, chocolate chips, and nuts. For each cookie place 1/4 cup of dough on cookie sheet. Bake 15-18 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool on rack.

Make these cookies. Your stomach will be happy.

Hope you're having a good week!