I took my daughter to a homeschool workshop at the Remick Museum in Tamworth, NH last Monday. The theme of the class was cooking on the hearth, or cooking on an open fire inside like they would have done in New Hampshire in the mid-1800s. It was a good experience with lots of dutch ovens and other cast iron, a reflector oven rotisserie, and a big, warm fire.

We prepared all the food from scratch, then cooked it on the fire. It wasn’t a new experience for me, but it was fun to be there while a bunch of kids had a new experience. There were two people there from New Hampshire Public Radio walking around, talking with the kids and recording it for a story. You can hear the story and read the transcript at NHPR.org.

Near the end of the class the kids were making butter by hand in a churn. When the man from NHPR asked the kids what it took to make good butter. One of the teachers said,

“Good, heavy cream and lots of work, right?”

My daughter replied, “And love. That’s the most important ingredient.”

Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours. And in case, like me, you need to be reminded from time to time what the most important ingredient of the day is while you’re working away in the kitchen, it’s love. If you’re the cook at your place, be sure to use a bunch of it.