I was introduced to Mauricio over email. My sister sent me a message and implored me to meet this nice young man from Chile, who was coming to Santa Barbara to dance. He had worked for her at her gym in South Carolina…
It took two weeks, but we were finally able to have him over, and spoil him a bit. He’s dancing for the State Street Ballet here in Santa Barbara, and will be touring with them once he returns from Chile at the end of September.
So, I’m sure this is a long shot, but do you remember when the last World Cup soccer matches were in play and I tried baking a few breads from around the world? Silly, I know, but I adore silliness. Anyway, back then I found a workable recipe of a sweet anise bread (from Uruguay) and I’m thinking this might be a wonderful gift for a young dancer who says that he loves bread. He pridefully announced that people in Chile eat more bread than any other South American country. I think this gives me free reign to spoil a starving dancer with at least one fresh loaf of bread.
Don’t you?
Anyway, he just left the States for the comfort of his home in Santiago. While he’s away, I’ve already practiced making this recipe once. Yum. See–already half eaten before I could get the camera out!
The recipe link above leaves much to be desired, so I had to fiddle here and there, and then I braided the loaves for extra fun. I will post a new recipe–my own version–in a few weeks (after a few more trials, which my kids will adore; they love this bread and will probably shower me with affectionate hugs and kisses when I bake it again…)
What about you? Any young Chileans floating into your life these days? Dancers? Maybe not, but if my kids are any measure, you may want to try baking up this loaf just for fun. Bonus hugs and extra smooches are always worth the effort…
The Woman and the Wheat 
Pingback: Orthodox Collective
From whence in SC does he come? I know lots of the old dance stomping grounds (heh heh) back home…
He’s from Chile, and was working for my sister in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina–at a gym called Eco Fitness. I believe he was dancing for a company there, and giving dance-based exercise classes as well. Anyway, we’ll have to go see him dance in the fall–shall we?
It just so happens that we have a young lady, Angela, who is a ballerina with State Street Ballet, living in our home right now, renting a room from us.
She is at home in Orange County during this September break, but when she is here she works herself to the bone and eats like a bird. She is vegetarian, not vegan, and her hours seem to change every week.
We don’t get to pin her down for a chat very often, and even less to sit down and “break bread” with us, but the idea of baking her a loaf of your amazing braided sweet anise bread sounds fun! Not sure when I’ll fit that into my schedule. Can’t even try to plan that at this moment…but maybe when I skid into a more sane spot in my life…. 🙂
Carla–I heard that you had a dancer in your midst! I will have to bake for her and for Mauricio together–that will be a gift… So. Here’s the fun news. I got to see the whole troupe perform about ten days ago. They have been working on a piece to Paul Simon music and Mauricio invited me to the private showing in the studio (that they do for their Board members…) Wow! What a talented group. I took John Ronan and he squirmed for half the time and loved it the other half. I loved the whole thing.
Dancers are amazing.
How wonderful. 🙂 I am planning to purchase tickets to their performance in SB whenever I find out when/where it is. I’m excited to see them dance. Maybe we can all go together? (If it is not too expensive.)