A Girl's Gotta Eat!

As usual, we were watching The Pioneer Woman on a Saturday morning over coffee and breakfast. It was an episode where they're celebrating a birthday, and the cake she was making called our names loud and clear: Strawberry Shortcake Cake .  Easter was coming up, after all, and we had volunteered to bring dessert, so what better timing can there be? This is definitely a keeper. It looks more complicated than it is, and was delicious, full of fresh flavor from the strawberries. I wouldn't change a thing; Ree Drummond knows what she's doing! I didn't use quite all of the icing, but that's just personal preference. Hope you enjoy it! First, the shortcake: 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing 1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting 3 tablespoons cornstarch 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups plus two tablespoons sugar 3 whole large eggs 1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 pound strawbe...

So, we were lounging about yesterday morning, thrilled at having no plans for the entire weekend (a rare occurrence indeed). We were enjoying some (deer) steak and eggs for breakfast and watching The Pioneer Women on the Food Network channel. We like Ree a lot. They seem to have a really cool family, and her recipes sound delicious and totally make-able. Anyway, while we were eating breakfast yesterday, Ree was making Rigatoni and Meatballs. The meatballs looked amazing, and the more we watched, the more we thought we needed meatballs for dinner last night. I've made meatballs plenty of times, but have always used either my mom's recipe or no recipe at all. We decided we needed Ree's meatballs. And so, as we ventured out in the rain and drizzle for a few Christmas things, we stopped by Kroger for meatballs fixin's. And nothing against rigatoni, but decided we really wanted spaghetti with our meatballs. Three things we did differently: We used 3/4 cup breadcrumbs...