Happy Thanksgiving Day, Liberia! Thanksgiving Day is celebrated every first Thursday of November by Liberians at. Since we are starting off the holiday season shortly, I have started a Thanksgiving Food Series for the month of November and planning more interesting recipes for December and the New Year! The Thanksgiving Food Series will feature new recipes twice a week that can served as great addition to your thanksgiving or holiday celebration menu. Today’s recipe – “Liberian Corn Bread” is a tribute to the Thanksgiving Day celebration in my sweet Liberia.
Thanksgiving is celebrated in the West African country of Liberia, each November. The Thanksgiving tradition in Liberia is rooted in the nation’s founding as a colony of the American Colonization Society in 1821 by free people of color from the United States. So, thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God for granting them freedom and opportunity in Liberia. Thanksgiving is also an opportunity for Liberians to recognize the good things that life has to offer them, even though the country has been troubled by internal conflicts.
Thanksgiving in Liberia isn’t “Turkey Day” like in the US. It’s not primarily even “Family Day”. It’s a time to focus on thanking God for all His blessings, and especially for a free country to live in. Liberians use the day as an occasion for going to their places of worship. Farmers bring some of the fruit from their recent harvest to church and then hold a fresh produce auction at the end of the service. After church, there are family gatherings and celebrations in homes, though they are not as big as those typically held in the US.
Liberian cuisine is also the West African cuisine with the longest tradition of baking and the production of desserts and cakes. This warm, soft and buttery Liberian corn bread can be served for breakfast dessert or snack on a cold Fall day lol! Growing up as a child in Liberia, I remembered my mother baking cornbread, cookies and other treats to sell as a wholesale distributor to store owners in the local market. Oh the baking aroma in the yard and house fill the air around the entire community, which led to my mother having a lot of assistants for mixing the butter, sugar, dry ingredients, flavors and extracts which resulted in a faster baking cycle. While, each assistant was guaranteed to head home with a goodies bag of Liberian Corn Bread, cookies and more!
Liberian Corn Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter
- 1 cup Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 cup Flour, sifted
- 2 cup Corn Meal
- ½ tsp Nutmeg
- 3 tsp Baking powder
- 1½ cup Milk
- a dash of Salt
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar well
- Add eggs ad beat well
- Mix flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt, nutmeg
- Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, alternately with milk
- Bake at 350° degrees about 50 minutes.
- Golden brown, cut, spread with butter and served
Video
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