Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir

Luke will be starring a workshop at college in New York, Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir. According to Luke Macfarlane Online,

The workshop play is a 3 day weekend event starting on Thursday, July 1st, and ending on Saturday, July 3rd.

Tickets are on sale and they cost $20.00 per ticket. You may purchase the tickets online at the PowerHouse Theater website.

The full address of the theater:

Susan Stein Shiva Theater
124 Raymond Avenue
Vassar College
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
Phone: (845) 437-5599

I wish I would be there, but it's too far away.

Side Dish - 17th May

Side Dish - Scotty's Food Blog from ABC, Brothers & Sisters.

Life is nothing if not surprising. When I started this blog a few short months ago I never could have imagined the highs and lows I would experience during the intervening time. From science fair projects to changing careers and kitchen fires to fatherhood, no matter what I planned for life had a way of…well…happening. The good and the bad.

Which brings me to my big news. I’ll do the good first: I will be opening my own restaurant with “Uncle” Saul. Timelines and specific details are still to be determined, but we had a tasting up in Ojai this weekend and the menu – modern comfort foods, served tapas-style – were a big hit with my family. We’re far from done, but I am genuinely excited about what lies for us on the road ahead.

Which brings me to the bad news. The literal bumps in the road. We were involved in that major highway accident you no doubt read about this past weekend. I wish I could say everyone was OK. They are not. Just when life seems certain and good, a truck jackknifes on a road. In a brief moment our lives are instantly changed.

Our bodies and hearts slowly heal and at some point we look again to the future. To that distant point somewhere on the horizon towards which we aim and dream.

So this will be my last blog entry for now but not forever. I can promise you that I’ll be back before our kid is a teenager. And I’ll also leave you with a recipe I’ve adapted from our Ojai tasting for a gazpacho soup that will be on our restaurant’s menu. With everything going on in my family, this soup symbolizes that distant point on the horizon that I’ll be working towards. Feel free to pull up a chair, pour yourself a bowl and share in my dream.

GAZPACHO
• 1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded but not peeled
• 2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
• 4 plum or Roma tomatoes
• 1 red onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 23 oz low-sodium tomato juice
• ¼ cup white wine vinegar
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ½ tablespoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper. (or to taste)

Roughly chop the cucumber, bell peppers, tomatoes and red onions into roughly 1/2-inch cubes. ( I chopped them by hand but you can use a food processor too) (Do not over process!!). After each vegetable is chooped, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer it sits, the more the flavors will develop.

Add some sliced avocado to each bowl soup for added flavor.

Oh and I am so sorry I don’t have a new picture featuring me or Kevin this week…we are pretty beat up from the accident…

The 2010 AfterElton Hot 100!

A customary event, the result of AfterElton Hot 100! has come out. Luke got the fourth place.

4. Luke Macfarlane

Rank last year: 3

He sings too! Did you catch that on the most recent episode of Brothers & Sisters where Luke Macfarlane sang that touching Irish funeral song? Granted, he was singing about Ojai Foods, which is hard to get too worked up about, but who knew he had such a beautiful voice?

As Scotty Wandell, Kevin’s love interest on ABC’s primetime soap, Luke caught our attention early on. Some have wondered what Scotty sees in the famously neurotic Kevin, but no one has ever wondered what Kevin sees in Scotty: not only is he the calm at the center of the Walker family storm, he’s got classically handsome good looks. And now that we’ve seen Scotty in both his swimming trunks and his underwear, we also know he’s got a body to die for.

Basically, Scotty is damn nice to come home to. And ever since the actor himself bravely came out in 2008, we can make a pretty good guess that Luke would be wonderful to come home to too.

And of course Matthew Rhys is also on the list.

34. Mathew Rhys

Rank last year: 34

If I remember correctly whom I voted for, one of my vote didn't come onto the list.

Brothers & Sisters S4E24

"On The Road Again"

Well, before writing I should think about my thoughts at first. To be honest, I didn't like Robert's storyline at all, especially I didn't like the plot where Kevin works for Robert concept. So I'm pretty satisfied with Rob Rowe's departure. I really pleased with setting Luke that position, he was too much saint as Scotty sometimes though, I hope they'll not reduce his appearance in the next season because his work is busy.
And there is a big story with Saul and 3/4 of this clip is almost same as the above one though, I think I should put it here.

As a sad news, Saul carries HIV. I've never thought that the writers would make him a carrier. In the last quarter, everything turns into hell. How can we possibly expect such dramas?

This season was quite impressive and much much better than the last season. I'm very much expecting brilliant story in the next season, such as Saul's living with HIV positive storyline, Scotty will run his own restaurant storyline, Kevin and Scotty will have be parents finally storyline etc, etc. I have to be careful to not expect too much.

Ask Brothers & Sisters, Part 14

Side Dish - 13th May

Side Dish - Scotty's Food Blog from ABC, Brothers & Sisters.

In honor of Mother's Day, this week I'm dedicating my blog to mothers everywhere...even to my own mother – who has not always been a model of love and support. But in the face of the setbacks we've come up against this week in the Walker family business, I now have a newfound appreciation for some of the other mothers in my own life – Nora, Holly, Kitty and Sarah, I am talking to you! – who manage to anchor and support their families and each other in the face of crisis.

And as Kevin and I get ready to embark on our own journey to parenthood, I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with my own mother. Will she want to be part of her grandchild's life? I certainly hope so. Only time will tell, I guess... And even though I don't have the relationship with her that I would want, I still see my mother as part of me and so I turn to her for this week's recipe, an all-purpose cake that my family loved to eat and loved even more to talk about: Texas Sheet Cake. There's nothing really Texan about it and I think part of the reason I loved it so much as a kid (besides the fact that it is delicious!) was it gave me license to curse. Yes, to curse. Let me explain...

Despite being from Mississippi no one in my family has a Southern accent, but when we talked about this cake we'd use the thickest drawl possible so "sheet" was made sound like a certain four-letter word. So I would ask for this cake to be made at every birthday, holiday or family gathering. Yes, because it was good, but also because it let me imagine that I was getting away with swearing.

When I went and found this recipe (written out by my mom and transcribed below), I decided that I'll make one of these cakes for Michelle the newest mother in my life to enjoy. In fact this cake is so good, I think I'll make one for all of the mothers in my life. And, of course, for Kevin.

Happy Mother's Day to mothers everywhere!!

TEXAS SHEET CAKE
(from Scotty's Mom)

Sift together the following dry ingredients:
• 1 ¾ cup flour
• 1 ¾ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Bring the following to a boil:
• 1 stick butter
• 3 Tablespoons cocoa
• ¾ cup water

Add to the flour/sugar mixture and beat

Add the following ingredients:
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup of sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla


Beat well and bake on a greased cookie sheet at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

BOILED ICING (This makes a very generous amount)

Melt/mix the following ingredients:
• ¾ stick butter
• 3 Tablespoons of water
• 3 Tablespoons of cocoa

Into that mixture dissolve about
• ¾ to 1 pound of confectionery sugar

Beat until smooth. Finally, add 1 teaspoon vanilla and spread on the cake while hot.

Sprinkle with nuts or decorate any way you want (e.g. candy hearts, Birthday greetings, etc.)

Good luck, Scotty!
Love you,
Mom

Ask Brothers & Sisters, Part 12

One episode left

Although I was expecting new SideDish, it's not coming.
So I picked the result of a poll up from SideDish page. They are the most popular five episodes of Scotty.

1. An Act of Will (S1E2): In which we meet Scotty
2. Northern Exposure (S1E7): Scotty and Kevin break up
3. Prior Commitments (S2E16): Scotty and Kevin's wedding
4. Something New (S2E8): Scotty and Kevin reunite
5. History Repeating (S2E3): Scotty returns

I like them but I can't say they are the best. The end of last season, I tired to choose the best episode but it was quite difficult for me to pick the best. I definitely like Something New, I like Prior Commitments but it's like a cliché. That was an amazingly beautiful scene though. I don't know, still I can't decide which episode is the best. To tell the truth, I don't care their storyline much, as long as I can see Luke in it. It's a lie, I do care but it's a different focus.
Anyways there is only one episode left in this season, I hope it will be very much fine and also I hope the next season will be good as this season. However, I think ABC hasn't announced about renewing. I wish they will do it soon.

Brothers & Sisters S4E23

"Lights Out"

Brohers & Sisters can be seen two days earlier than in the US, because Global, Canadian broadcast company, broadcasts it on Friday since they have aired two-hour episode on Friday.
This episode is mainly about shutting Ojai Foods down. That's a little heartbreaking though, at the same time, we can feel something moving on.
Anyway in this episode, Luke is singing in a cappella. If you fancy to listen to his singings, you should visit Luke's magnificent fan site, Luke Macfarlane Online. You can find a menu on the top, FELLOW NAMELESS, it's the band that Luke belonged to.

Side Dish - 3rd May

Side Dish - Scotty's Food Blog from ABC, Brothers & Sisters.

A Taco Bell drive-thru seems an unlikely place for a fight about parenting, but that was just the setting of my most recent melee with Kevin.

Let me just put this out there: I have no problem with fast food. Actually, I should rephrase that. I have no problem with fast food every once in a while. But lately fast food has almost made up Kevin's entire diet. I knew it was a problem when I got into his once-spotless car and it smelled like...well...you know how those little green trees hanging from the rearview mirror make the car smell like pine? Well it wouldn't have surprised me if he had a little cardboard Big Mac-stale french-fries-and-Chalupa tree hanging from his rearview mirror.

Now maybe 9 months before a baby is born is too early to talk about what we plan on feeding him/her. But I'm a chef, so I have food on the brain. And I saw my opening in that Taco Bell drive-thru: "Fast food is fine for us, but we won't be those parents who serve it to our kids...will we?" I thought this was a leading question and Kevin would take the bait.

He didn't.

He just looked at me like I had two heads. His face scrunched up. His lip quivered. "You don't want to deny our child a HAPPY MEAL do you?" I stumbled and Kevin seized his opportunity: "Are you saying you don't want our child to be HAPPY?" This was serious. I thought fast: "Of course I want him-slash-her to be happy. But I also want him-slash-her to be healthy. We can at least agree to make our own baby food, right?"

Kevin thought that was a silly idea. "Baby food is baby food, right? Isn't it all the same?" There can be only one way to settle this: later that night I conducted a baby food taste test.

For the test I went out and bought a bunch of jarred baby food along with some organic fruits and vegetables with which I could puree my own. Homemade baby food is remarkably easy to make for even the busiest parent. Kevin and I would taste them both and see which tasted better

I stared at a jar of baby food. One of the ingredients? Niacinamide. "Mmmm...just like grandma used to make."

I tasted it, barely able to swallow. Kevin said I was being dramatic, but he too spit it out: "Pond Scum!"

I called the turkey rice dinner "interesting" while Kevin said: "what's interesting is that it didn't make you vomit."

One after the other, Kevin hated what he tried. Then we tried my pureed prunes. "Delicious!" And my "Farmer's Market" blend of vegetables? We licked the bowl clean.

So that's the compromise: fresh healthy baby food and eventually the occasional Happy Meal. Because I have to admit, sure fast food isn't always healthy, but it can definitely be tasty.

Just don't tell Kevin I said that.

Brothers & Sisters S4E22

"Love All"