- I think she shut the blinds
so that he wouldn't see us walking up.
I'm really nervous.
(knocking)
- Hi, I'm Rie.
Cooking and giving food can be a personal
and wonderful gift.
This holiday season, we wanted to help two of our friends
say thank you to some very important people in their lives.
Here are their stories.
This is my friend, Crystal.
She's a Goodful Producer so I don't need to be here
to teach you anything.
(laughing)
- Today, Rie is going to be teaching me how
to make my dad's favorite, oatmeal raisin cookies,
which I've actually never made before
but I feel like I'm in good hands.
The reality for me is that I wouldn't be here today
if it weren't for a police chief who adopted me
when I was 11.
- It's such an honor you have me help you
to make cookie for your dad.
I heard your story earlier,
it's very, I got a little bit emotional.
- I'm excited to present them to him.
- I'm Rachel, today I am teaming up with Rie
to make my Aunt Betsy's favorite cookies
which are chocolate chip cookies
without the chocolate chips.
When my mom was becoming very sick,
me and my dad were very lost, Betsy had gotten wind of this
and decided to drop everything
and come over to the East coast.
I felt safer.
- So have you made this cookie before?
- I've barely made cookies
but I've definitely never made this one.
- Whenever you have a question, stop me
and ask me question.
Mostly, you gonna make it.
- Okay.
- Put the butter in the pot.
- Whole thing?
- Mm-hmm, whole thing.
- Okay.
- Get in there.
So you are going to sift together flour
and everything else into the sifter.
- Flour.
- Yeah, baking soda.
Cinnamon.
- I was born into a family that unfortunately
was riddled with addiction.
For a single guy in his 50's to take on an 11 year old kid,
is astounding.
Alright, what's next?
- Salt and grate nutmeg.
- Perfect, so salt.
- Like a quarter teaspoon.
- Okay.
- You start seeing the brown bits, right?
- Yeah.
- That's the flavor.
Can you pour it?
- Oh God.
- No, no, no, you're good.
Add water until one cup mark.
Nice, so I'm going to put in a refrigerator
because it's really really hot.
- Okay.
- So I'm gonna cool it down to the next step.
- Betsy had come into the house and provided dinner
for me on nights when I didn't wanna eat.
She would bring me to the local mall
and help me get clothes for school
that were things that usually me and my mom would do
but my mom was too sick to do at this point.
Today, I'm really excited because I'm gonna be able
to finally give Betsy a special gift.
- Put flour,
baking soda,
- Okay.
- Make it rain.
Next step is creaming butter.
So just put in a bowl and sugar, both sugar.
Castor sugar and brown sugar.
Use the hand.
Cream until it's kind of like a facial cream texture.
- It's really important to me to be able
to show my dad how much I appreciate him.
Every year at Christmas,
he writes me a handwritten letter telling me how proud he is
of me and how far I've come in my life.
I feel like this might be a good way
to kinda give that back to him.
- This is brown sugar.
This one's cane sugar.
So brown sugar makes cookie a little bit chewy.
Another secret ingredient is espresso powder.
It's kinda like, breaks sweetness, and salt.
- And what's?
- The vanilla extract.
It's for flavor too.
- I thought it was like molasses.
- Oh. Hm, the vanilla.
- Is that what molasses looks like?
- Molasses is a little thicker.
- 'Cause it's molasses.
- Next step is add oatmeals and mix with spatula.
We wanna make a little bit, you know, elevated,
- Yeah.
- A little bit special.
Have some toasted walnuts,
I have dried cherries and cranberries.
- That sounds really good
and I feel like with the different berries it'll give
it sort of a holiday vibe as well.
- Mm-hmm, yeah, it's a little bit red color
so it's kinda give a nice holiday spirit I think.
So we chilled brown butter.
- Can I smell it?
- Smell it.
- Oh my god.
- Pour this over and scrape all the goodies on the bottom.
And here, turn on, don't be scared.
You can go a little faster if you want.
- Higher?
- Yeah higher.
I got you.
Nice, and I'm going
to add dry ingredients you sifted earlier.
Just scoop
and drop.
We are going to flatten this a little bit on your hand.
One inch apart.
- One inch, okay.
- Yep, so we are going to pop this in a refrigerator
for one hour to chill and bake for 12 to 14 minutes.
- So, ta da.
Woo, ta da.
- It smells so good.
- Really nice.
- And I like the nice golden crunchy edge.
I really hope your dad will like it.
- I think he's gonna really love this.
I like these a lot and I know him pretty well
so I think he's gonna really enjoy these.
- This is great.
- Yeah.
- Thank you so much.
- Oh yeah, great, you did it.
- It's like the perfect consistency
I think she's gonna love them.
- The best part of baking and cooking
for somebody else, why do you doin' it,
you're thinking about that person
- Yeah.
- You're taking time, you're going shopping
and making and baking.
Whole time, it's dedicated to that person.
- Yeah.
- And I think that time is precious.
(soft music)
- I'm here about two and a half hours outside
of LA just to surprise my dad with these cookies.
I event found this little box with dinosaurs
on it which I thought was super cute
'cause his name is Rex.
- I invited my aunt Betsy to the studio today.
She doesn't really know what's happening
so I'm really excited and also a little bit nervous
to give her this gift.
- So we'll see how it goes.
(squeaking)
(knocking)
- Betsy, I brought you here today to talk about my mom
and all the things that occurred
almost fifteen years ago now.
But what I did not tell you is the video is actually
about you and I wanted to say thank you
and I never got a chance to
and I'm so sorry for that
but I wanted to reach out to you
and especially around the holidays.
I gotta go get this.
Bring you.
- Oh my god, don't do that.
- Your favorite cookies, chocolate chip cookies
without chocolate chips
and just to tell you that I'm thinking of you,
that you did so much for me
and I so appreciate that
because you really changed the course of my life.
- Hi dad.
- Hi sweetie, what're you doin' here?
- I brought you a box of your favorite cookies.
- Well thank you, come in.
- Don't mind them.
- These are your favorite cookies
and basically, I just wanted to bring them to you.
I made them specially for you
'cause I know that they're your favorite
and I wanted to do it as a way
to say thank you for just, I'm gonna cry,
for just being so important to me.
- Just being me?
- Yeah, for just being you and for being so amazing
to me and supporting me and loving me
and for being my dad.
- You're welcome.
- Thank you.
- Here you go.
- I don't feel like I really did
- You did.
- But I wanted to.
- I love you very much.
- I love you.
- You adopted me and because
of that my life is so much better and
my life is so much better
and that I appreciate it every day.
- I do too.
(laughing)
- They are good.
- They are very good.
- Your mom would be really proud.
You're a very, very unique young woman.
- Thank you.
We had a rough spot for a little but I'm okay now.
- No, you're good.
- You know how much I love you.
- I know.
- Every time I talk to you, every time I see you,
it's always the same, love is always there.
Me and you.
- Yep.
- Well thank you very much.
(soft calming music)