Gather: Your Field Guide to the Thanksgiving Season

A Clickable Guide from Waiting on Martha & Friends
Filed Under > Holiday Entertaining

Waiting on Martha's Thanksgiving Guide

With all of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, sometimes you just want a one-stop guide for all your entertaining needs.  Since we like to think of Thanksgiving as basically our Super Bowl here at WOM, we find such joy (and maybe even an adrenaline rush!) in culling the best recipes and most beautiful details for the Big Day.

So let me introduce you to our gorgeous new Thanksgiving Guide, a clickable e-mag that features everything you need to host your own beautiful gathering.  In the guide, we’ve featured some of our most popular Thanksgiving recipes that are sure to please any crowd (hello green bean casserole!), along with our favorite hand-selected products to get the job done. 

But we’re not stopping there. Also in the guide, you’ll find my top five secrets to styling a stunning spread, along with a fool-proof entertaining timeline to ensure everything goes smoothly. We’re sharing our tasty menu, but be sure to download the printable menu to customize yours at home, along with the hand-lettered conversation cards and place cards by our girl Jenn Gietzen

Throughout the guide you’ll also find the smiling faces of some of our favorite tastemakers (big hugs to you all!); we invited them to weigh in with their own great entertaining tips and day-of essentials.  I think you’ll agree that our guide is jam-packed with all of the inspiration and takeaways you’ll need to host a very special gathering this year.  Check out the guide HERE and tell me,  who’s ready for Turkey Day?? Truly, MKR

Click to view: “Gather: Your Field Guide to The Thanksgiving Season

SHOP THE STORY / CLICK LEFT & RIGHT ARROWS TO EXPLORE

 

 

Cover image, Rustic White for Waiting on Martha 

A big thanks to our friends who taking part in our Thanksgiving Guide: Allyson Conklin, Anna Liesemeyer, Cassandra LaValle, Chassity Evans, Devon Cruse, Gaby Dalkin, Gray MalinJenn Gietzen, Kathryn McCrary and Rustic White

How to put together a Halloween Candy Board

A spooky and fun take on just what you can put on a "cheese" board
Filed Under > "Hostess with the Mostest"
halloween candy board

There are a lot of food and entertaining trends I CAN’T get behind, boards for everything is not one of them.

Collecting your classic cheese and charcuterie boards in all different shapes and sizes has become as popular as collecting matchbooks or blue and white chinoiserie pieces. Not only do these boards look gorgeous placed around your kitchen, but they’re extremely practical. Practical yes for your classic cheese plate obviously, but if you’re not thinking outside of the cheese board it’s time to start. And what better way than loading one with all the Halloween treats your stomach can handle for a Halloween Candy Board.

Crafting a Halloween Candy Board is truly easier than it looks. Personally, I like to start from the center and work my way out. Mix up colors and types of treats like chocolate pumpkins, cupcakes (I just added eyeballs to store bought cupcakes), homemade mallows, and cookies. For those local, Pum’s Sweets made these gorgeous mini sugar cookies!

Always include a bowl, or rather three if you’re doing more than one as odds always work better in this case. My pumpkin bowl is filled with a classic Autumn Mixture of mine, recipe coming on Friday! And if you feel like making your own bark I highly suggest this easy bark of mine. I make it every year!

Aesthetically make sure you’re angling treats all different directions so it doesn’t look like your Halloween Candy Board is tilting or moving in one specific direction. And try to make everything flow together so you have very few spaces or gaps showing. Lastly, have fun and don’t take it too seriously.

One more thought. I love a good grazing board as much as the next person, but based on everything that’s going on grazing is a no-no. To help make your Halloween Candy Board more socially distanced friendly grab plenty of inexpensive tongs and make sure everyone has their own that way they can pile the treats on their plate and simply place the tongs in a “dirty” bucket once they’re done for the evening. And grab some Halloween themed goodie bags so guests can take a few goodies home with them.

Happy Halloween friends, and if you need any Halloween decor ideas make sure to check out my favorite Halloween-themed post HERE! Truly, MKR

Photography Rustic WHite Interiors

Baked Spaghetti Squash Boats

Squash season's star makes for a healthy, easy weeknight dinner the whole family will like
Filed Under > Everyday Dinner
spaghetti squash
baked spaghetti squash

It’s officially squash season! And while I’ve made spaghetti squash practically every way possible (hello lasagna), my new favorite is via boats. Or rather Spaghetti Squash Boats. An easy, healthy, and most importantly flavorful recipe I’ve been making nonstop lately.

Think of this Spaghetti Squash Boat recipe like the loaded baked potato of squash recipes. You can come up with 100 different combos (vegan, vegetarian, or carnivore) and because spaghetti squash has the tofu-like ability to take on whatever flavor you’re cooking it with you’ll likely ace it every time. My husband who won’t touch squash with a ten-foot pole loved this dish so much he warmed it up for lunch the next day and even asked if we could try a buffalo chicken riff next time.

This Spaghetti Squash Boat recipe is also a big win because it’s deceptively healthy by allowing you to stuff it full of veggies and because of how melty the cheese becomes with the actual use of very little cheese. The other key to making your squash boat pack a true punch is the building of flavors through sauteing the sausage, garlic, onions, and veggies in the same pan.

And as if you needed another reason to try Spaghetti Squash Boats, bonus points if you’re a Sunday meal prepper because by cooking the Spaghetti Squash ahead of time this truly turns into a 30-minute meal.

Print the recipe out below and try it for yourself. And don’t forget to tag us on Instagram with whatever Spaghetti Squash Boat combo you created. Truly, MKR

Spaghetti Squash Boats

Mandy Kellogg Rye, Waiting On Martha
Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 1 hr
Course Main Course

Equipment

  • Sheet Pan
  • Saute Pan

Ingredients
  

  • 2 Spaghetti Squash
  • 4 Sasuage Links (Chicken, Pork or Turkey. I prefer to use Andouille Turkey Sausage when possible).
  • 2 cups broccoli rough chopped
  • 2 cups asparagus cut into 1" pieces
  • 1 small onion chopped
  • 3-4 cloves garlic finely chopped/diced
  • 1 bag shredded skim mozzerella cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • red pepper flakes (optional)
  • olive or avocado oil for sauteeing

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
    Cook spaghetti squash face down on a baking pan lined with tin foil until cooked through. Approximately 30 minutes. Once cooked fork out the squash carefully into a large bowl reserving the spaghetti squash skins for baking. **This can be done up to 2 days in advance**
    While the squash is cooking, heat a large saute pan over medium/high heat spray non stick spray and add olive oil. Once hot add sausage, crumbling and cooking through. Once cooked remove and set aside.
    Place the pan back onto the heat and spray if needed again. You want the sausage oil reserves to stay in the pan for flavoring. Add onions and garlic cooking 2 minutes or until browned and tender. Add broccoli and asparagus. If frozen cook until warm/hot, if raw cook until softened.
    Add spaghetti squash and sausage back to the mixture with salt, pepper, red pepper and 1/4 cup of the cheese until combined and melted.
    Add skins back onto the sheet pan and spoon mixture back into the squash skins like a twice baked potato. Cover with remaining cheese and bake until cheese is fully melted.
    Remove and enjoy.

**If you choose to make the spaghetti squash beforehand make sure when you add It back to the pan mixture that it Is fully warmed through. When putting the boats back in the oven the mixture should be fully cooked through, you're simply adding it back to the oven to melt the cheese.**

    Photography Rustic White Interiors

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