[Music] it's 8:00 on today coming up courting controversy Colorado Supreme Court rules the Constitution bans Donald Trump for running for president because of his role in the January 6th Insurrection but puts the ruling on pause until the US Supreme Court can weigh in just ahead inside the case and why the same challenge has failed in several other states then T the season respiratory illnesses on the rise with hospitalizations for flu and covid increasing just in time for the holidays Dr John T
orres is here with all the tips to stay healthy plus Fielding questions we'll introduce you to a Florida teacher turn internet sensation say way to goio how she combined her love for sports and teaching as I started in third grade I noticed that there was an interest more in sports the losses are my favorite part because it's where the lessons come from it's where we are able to learn and to grow and that's such an important thing for the kids to understand and even caught the attention of some
major NFL teams and don't touch that dial what do you he what do you say we're revealing the greatest television shows of all time if you don't like what is being said change the conversation who took the top spot get out of here and did your favorite make the list we'll find out in popart today Wednesday December 20th 2023 on a girl trip with free Generations from Washington North Dakota shout out to University in Z North Carolina let's go do visiting from Knoxville Tennessee forw Texas Co City
Illinois Waverly Iowa and Kentucky hello to our granddaughter Lily Sparrow at Dart Texas first time in New York from Ka Texas [Applause] W we're back 812 with the story of a remarkable teacher using her passion away from school as a teaching skill in her classroom yes her now viral lessons are touching families and fans all over the country and get this it all started with some basic number crunching NBC Sam Brock joins us from Pine crast Elementary in Miami this morning with more Hi Sam Savann
ah good morning guys good morning Mary Martinez is a third grade teacher here at Pine Crest Elementary who happens to like the Miami Dolphins a lot like a lot a lot this class right here is the Martinez MVP standing by now this all started guys with some simple math as you mentioned they were tracking Tyreek Hills Chase for 2,000 yards the star wide receiver for the Dolphins it has evolved into so much more with the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets even getting involved happy Friday happy Fr
iday if you're going to step foot onto Mary Martinez's field of play AKA her third grade classroom have the Dolphins played the Jets yet yes yes students better bring an open mind and a keen sense of sportsmanship because as the penalties posted on the door reveal how we treat others is the name of the game where did this idea come from I've Loved Sports all my life and as I started in third grade I noticed that there was an interest more in sports and while I love the Dolphins and I want them t
o be perfect like 1972 the losses are my favorite part because it's where the lessons come from it's where we are able to learn and to grow and that's such an important thing for the kids to understand football for you is a metaphor for teaching them life lessons yes earlier this season tell me how many yards did Tyreek Hill get against the Jets last time the Pine Crest Elementary teacher became a viral sensation by following The Sensational play of dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill Tyreek Hill on c
alculating his yards per game as he chases history in a 2000 Y season ignasio has guessed Tyreek Hills yards exactly he's getting a no homework pass say way to go ignasio to goio but these videos filmed by a 9-year-old photographer Nicholas really exploded When Miss Martinez expanded her Playbook and talked about how Jets injured quarterback Aaron Rogers reached out to Dolphins player Jaylen Phillips who suffered the same brutal Achilles tear in the same stadium to offer him support through his
injury to say hey man I've been there too and she even gave her Jets towel from the game to her lone jet student Giovani I know what you're thinking you have a student that's a Jets fan yes I have a student that's a Jets fan if that moment touched Giovani I even showed him once on my phone where it just said New York Jets liked post and he was about to melt just imagine the I rushing through Miss Martinez's entire class when Dolphins players like Bradley chub started posting videos I just want t
o send a special shout out to you Miss Martinez and your class um thank you all for the support then the Dolphins inviting Mary to Monday Night Football and perhaps the culmination the New York Jets surprising that one stalwart supporter I open the box and there's this letter and it's like an official jet letter and and it's for giovan Giovanni and it says we're so excited for you and wanted to send you this signed football from Bree Garrett and Quincy JS Jets Jets Jets so here you go Giovani th
is is from the Jets the proud Gang Green fan fighting back tears on a scale of 1 to 10 how happy would you say you are right now 000 the teams in this case casting rivalries aside for a teacher whose voice has transcended the grid iron the game is so much bigger than just playing football I mean to some people it is just football but to me it's it's everything you can learn so much from the game now Mary of course is an internet darling at this point but how did this all come about your mom appr
oached me inside of a Nordstrom and said I watch The Today Show every single day I had this amazing daughter you have to do a story on her what did you call your mom now the momer of course she the momer her number one hype woman and so that was so important to the story but also poor Giovani you know what like we're talking about hard lessons in life hard knock School of Hard Knocks they basically lost 30 to nothing Giovani after that entire thing but I say to him that you know what this is lif
e as a Jets fan guys this is what happens when a team gives you just a little bit of Hope and they rip it away from you so I feel like there were Lessons Learned in this as well there's always lessons that can be learned no matter what right guys we learn a lot of lessons every single day right do they have a message maybe for us what do you guys think right now what you want to say to the what we want to say go dophins I do not subscribe to that one but we can appreciate what the Dolphins have
done for this team and what an amazing story great job with everything you're doing to teach life lessons to these thank you Mary guys let me send it back to you there go great job kids too oh my God if that's not that's going to catch on that method of teaching is going to catch on cuz it's something well just meeting kids where their interests are makes a lot of sense and you know what can we say hi to her mom who went up to Sam in a Nord I know by the way that's and Giovani and giovan Sam was
a little cruel GI a little Cru to giovan okay GI J TS J giovan let them know how you feel buddy are you still roting for giovan who's your team the oh G you can do better than that j e [Music] tsed all right thank you guys man that was a great story God uh by the way while we're talking football uh don't forget we've got a double dose of it for you on Saturday a holiday double header Bingle Steelers 3 P.M Eastern here on NBC and peacock that game is going to be followed by the bills and the Cha
rgers at 7:30 Eastern that one exclusively on peacock [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] he I'm a Just for kicks now feel [Music] 196 we are back with Portugal the man's Grammy winning song feel it still and Hoda you got a chance to sit down with two members of the band that's right lead singer and song writer John gorley and his wife and singer Zoe Manville along with being incredible musicians they're also devoted Ed parents they're using the
ir voices to draw attention to a cause that is near and dear to their hearts John gorley and his wife Zoe Manville were at the height of their success with their band Portugal the man's grammy-winning single feel it still but then their daughter Francis began showing signs of a devastating disease she was nine in the pandemic 2021 we were doing homeschooling and she just seemed to kind of deteriorate then she started to fall down a lot which at the time I didn't know if it was her just kind of b
eing clumsy I love you four years after that hit single their 12-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease dhdds dhdds is a neurodegenerative neurodevelopmental disease part of the the things that come along with it is epilepsy when did you realize this is something that is clearly really serious we started seeing her have these seizures start falling down really at the time it just kind of looked like her falling asleep for a few seconds it just like instant and it's not what
you think of when you think of seizures before we get into what happened next describe her as a little girl she's pretty awesome yes she's like a little comedian she's very funny and loving I love the way she walks into a school just like hi Billy hi Jeff hi Sarah like is like what's that how are you how are you it's infectious and watching her on stage with you guys too is equally infectious there's something about her she is fearless yes I was going to say no inhibition dhdds is a rare disease
and only 70 people in the world are known to have it so when you got the diagnosis and it must have just sounded like a bunch of letters how did the doctors explain it to you so dhdds is like Parkinson's Alzheimer's dementia in kids it's it's neurodegenerative and that's probably the the scariest thing you can hear as a parent yeah it was pretty crushing and I mean devastating John and Zoe created a GoFundMe page to help with the skyrocketing cost of francis's personalized treatment how expensi
ve are the medications I think up to 2 million $2 million yeah and for the medicine that's yeah so that's a very specific medicine that would be for one person so it it costs a lot the idea that anyone can afford a $2 million treatment is insane there is no treatment for dhdds you need to develop the treatment yeah and this this disease is rare but there's millions of kids with rare diseases so what do doctors say about francis's prognosis I feel like nobody knows what's going to happen or how f
ast is going to happen there's hope there's examples of kids in front of us that have i me have had cognitive improvements with these treatments yeah and that that gives us a a lot of Hope is there one song that you guys perform that says Francis to you we have a song on the new album uh called times of fantasy and it ends with this I got a feeling things are going to be just fine I feel it and Francis heard that song and she just started singing that line and she we ended up bringing her into t
he studio to sing it with us because she would sing to the demo just fine her her voice little Voice pops out and it's so perfect beautiful yeah I mean and what's what keeps you going I think seeing Francis happy there are some success stories out there that's a huge hope for everybody yeah and they are keeping hope alive Francis in fact during our interview was right upstairs she does perform with them and she is the brightest light but they said when they when they were talking about treatment
they said it's going to be expensive and he said we we'll sell our house and they said that's not enough so it just shows you where they are I mean the fact that they needed a GoFundMe page and still do to raise money so that they can have some kind of treatment for their daughter and I mean there is it's not that there's a cure it's just some treatment to what should I like hold off symptoms just in between but they're fighting for all kids the way you have this was a remarkable couple and I w
as honored to sit with it was an honor yeah and by the way big thanks to the Rose Veil kitchen at the civilian hotel for letting us have our interview there and we should mention you can find more on francis's story on our website today.com wow when we come back uh we'll take a bit of a turn here we're going to sit down with the cast of The ironclaw to talk about their Transformations and and not just their physical transformations to bring that real life story of a pro wrestling Dynasty to the
big screen but first this is today on [Music] [Applause] [Music] NBC [Music] [Music] w [Music] [Applause] 3 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh we are back with four incredibly talented Stars who've come together for a very special project it's a new film it's called the iron claw and it tells the true story of the von Eric family professional was a professional wrestling Dynasty back in the late '70s early 80s Zack Efron Jeremy Allen White Harris Dickinson and Stanley Simons play the Broth
ers we're going to talk to them in just a moment but first let's step into the [Applause] ring oh Zach Jeremy Harris Stanley good morning good morning morning good morning so Zack Efron is a legitimate bonafide Hollywood Superstar but that is not why he is wearing sunglasses this no I'm sorry man I I feel weird being in Shades I just have a bit of an eye infection but I really wanted to be here it's such a good movie and uh I want to come see you guys and tell everyone about it it's it's it's be
tter than a good movie it's a fantastic film and we were just talking I just just finished watching it yesterday I grew up watching wrestling I grew up watching the NWA I knew who Ric Flair was I was not as familiar with this story and I understand you weren't either uh yeah no I I we found out about the he most of us did through reading the script and through investigating you know the von Eric Legacy it really is a a crazy true story and um yeah there these guys like changed wrestling they cha
nged the face of wrestling it's amazing the physical transformation and this shows it uh the physical transformation that each of you had to undergo to pull this off that was quite the feat in and of itself how' you do it h man a lot of work a lot of lot of eating lot of lot of lot of lift and heavy things um yeah yeah these guys were they were big men and uh and we were trying to we were trying to catch up so that physical preparation was it was intense but it really paid off man really informe
d us it did and it wasn't just the physical transformation I mean I would imagine um the mental transformation the emotional transformation as well had to take quite the toll yeah I mean it's heavy um the the the traged and kind of like brutality that that fell upon this family it's uh it's really um it's unbelievable um but um but yeah I think we tried to highlight too you know like the uh the celebration and the love and the bond between these these brothers yeah it was important yeah I will s
ay that you know the director Sean created a really wonderful environment on set so between takes we were laughing and and and having a good time that was my experience Joy yeah Stanley this this is your first project on the sort of on this scale what was it like working with these three it's amazing these guys are as cool as they seem uh yeah it was so much fun uh privilege and uh I learned a lot Jeremy Zack Efron I I read that he was U he was quite the leader behind the scenes as well was he w
as he a decent fellow on set oh my God more than decent man like I remember it was really yeah it was really amazing uh like prior filming during filming and since he's been like such a champion and cheerleader for for everybody um real like motivator um and just really like the most supportive man really really wonder you know it's it's easy man this these guys are such talented young actors and you know when you hear you're playing a professional wrestler I think the the hairs on the back of y
our neck up a little bit it can be a you're kind of vulnerable up there in the ring and uh from day one just the commitment out of all these guys uh was extraordinary so yeah I guess it it felt kind of natural to just encourage him and I know how I was feeling when I got out there in my underwear and was in front of the audience for the first time yeah I'm glad you brought har the costumes alone I mean the costumes not to give away too much of the story but you guys been the better part of of th
e movie in tights and shirtless there we are we we were saying yesterday like there's there's this strange moment between takes where we were out in the sportatorium with like hundreds of amazing like supporting artists who were cheering us on and then you you know the camera cuts and you sort of stood there in hot pants and you just feel like okay I'm going to Waddle back to the green gra a water because the like the adrenaline of a take where everyone's shouting it's like it's one thing to be
out there wrestling and then it's another one they call cut and you kind of just got to find a pose stand in is it true Jeremy that when you guys would go out to dinner occasionally um you would have folks who would recognize you from the bear and they would send out free food yeah yeah yeah they kept us fed yeah the reason I went for dinner with him Park really um yeah shout out to all the all the wonderful uh restaurants in Baton Rouge they really took care of us that's a real perk man that's
great yeah where are we on on season 3 what's the where are we um I think we're going to get started up in like February March and I'm going to get together with some chefs in January and start pre in the in the kitchen again shering up the the skills yeah Zach Jeremy Harris Stanley again it's a it's a solid film congratulations thank you very much appreciate it it's called The Iron Claw it hits theaters on Friday guys all right Craig thank you coming up next we're going to kick off choir week a
nd the final push to Christmas with joyous music from the Philadelphia boys choir and Corral but first this is today on NBC [Music] [Applause] [Music] one [Music] [Applause] [Music] I [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the City music series on today is proudly presented to you by city we are enjoying the beautiful sounds of the Philadelphia Boys Choir in corral this morning ah yes for more than five decades this award-winning group has been performing all over the world and
we are happy to welcome them back to our Plaza led by choir Alum Jeffrey Smith here they are with oh holy [Music] nights [Music] [Music] the it is the night of our dear [Music] savior's world [Music] s till appear and the [Music] [Music] s the we World rejoices for prise for you and [Music] glor for the angel voice [Music] oh when Christ was born [Music] [Applause] oh all Mighty [Music] TR Tau us to love one another is love and his goel is change shall we PR for S our brother his name all of sh
all cease sweet [Music] joyful all praise His holy [Music] name on your for the [Music] Angeles [Music] all all right Christ [Music] was oh night [Applause] [Applause] [Music] all [Music] this morning on the third hour of today grift card a new warning about a scam hitting close to home and it happened in our today family I checked it before I checked out everything looked good from the outside if you bought a gift card for the holidays listen up criminals stealing money without a trace how we c
an protect our purchases plus Here Comes The Rush an inside look at the busy week ahead and all of the work that goes into keeping us moving and while we're talking travel let's reveal the best travel destinations for 20204 from sandy beaches to bustling cities then in today food two fantastic Korean conditions that will take our holiday dinners to another level today Wednesday December 20th 2023 live from Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza this is the third hour of today walk in the sow in this [Mu
sic] Wonderland we [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right so good and you know what these boys have been up for a very long time and men too they were up when I came in this morning so good morning and welcome to the third hour of today this is certainly a wonderful way to begin our show today a Christmas classic performed by the Philadelphia boys choir and K they're kicking off our choir week one of my brothers cardo used to sing with the Philadelphia Voice Choir I mean it is a traditi
on founded in the 1960s they've won an Emy they were nominated for a Grammy theyve performed all over the world it's a really good experience for these boys and you know and you know why they're singing today what what day is it m m m m m what day is it Mike PP day yes we should have gotten the no I'm kidding yeah exactly well fortunately for us the week is not a winter wonderland so weather shouldn't impact the holiday travel rush but the TSA is predicting near record numbers this morning we're
going to get an incredible inside look at all the people it takes behind the scenes keeping us moving who can do that of course NBC's Tom Costello is the only one who could bring us this story and he is live at Costello national airport in Washington DC guys I've got good news for you uh talk about a perfect day to fly this is it right I've got hardly any delays or cancellations Nationwide Dallas right now is the most affected airport according to flight aare it ain't bad in Dallas this is a go
od day and as you know 7:00 a.m. at any airport is when it's really busy so now by 9:00 things have calmed down we between the banks as they say the banks of passengers leaving however if you are flying today or tomorrow the busiest travel days you won't have a lot of Elbow Room every seat will be taken the good news this Wednesday morning with 114 million people expected on the roads this holiday stretch and 2 and2 million moving through TSA checkpoints each day much of the country is now clear
of volatile travel weather for now though the flood waters remain winter weather will be a challenge it will certainly be a challenge in the next few weeks pellis wind gust has we caring for a possible ground stop at the FAA Command Center in Virginia that Icelandic volcano not expecting to have any impacts they watch everything from potential volcanic ash drift out of Iceland to storms moving across the US a powerful low pressure system pulling into New England in 24/7 constant communication K
enedy possible ground stop to 2300 Air Traffic Control Airline reps defense and National Weather experts all in one room possibility of newer ground stop a ground delay program due the winds this is the heart of the faa's command and control for the nation's air space if an airport anywhere needs a ground delay or ground stop they order it here weather is always top of screen and top of mind if you put a thunderstorm in like north northern New Jersey it could have a ripple effect across the enti
re country all the way to SFO and San Francisco yes absolutely San Francisco Riv advisory 39 is now active managing that ripple effect as air traffic manager gal's daily mandate so we do try to manage our uh High complex capacity areas to ensure that there's a smooth transition throughout the rest of the airspace military operations for Miami Center have been canceled FL this morning with nearly 50,000 flights both today and tomorrow the FAA has opened military airspace and more high altitude hi
ghways but the agency has still short several thousand air traffic controllers leading to mandatory overtime and an urgent search we know we need more air traffic controllers we're working hard to hire from a variety of sources and keep them moving through the training pipeline yeah that's the FAA Chief there who says listen that push to hire more controllers that really gets underway they're going to start looking and go out on a big hiring binge in the spring so if you know a young person who'
s just coming out of high school or college they want to start that kind of a career path they might have a real good future ahead of them something to consider as they are trying to fill the ranks of the air traffic controllers guys back to you all right thank you Tom that was fascinating perfect day to fly I I don't know if I've ever heard him say that I know I have not go somewhere today we love it when folks show up here on the Plaza we especially love it when folks show up on our Plaza and
they understand the assignment there's a gent all right clearly a fan of Elf the movie cay and costume thank you sir thanks for bringing the holiday and he's got a small bottle of maple syrup in this made it we got you on buddy from that travel Rush that Tom was just telling us about to a holiday warning now this is a really eye openening story gift cards of course wildly popular this time time of year especially in my house not anymore though I listen to Vicky win but before you buy those gift
cards you need to see this story inbc senior consumer investigative correspondent Vicki win is here and someone who's also very near and dear to our heart scammed scammed this is one of the worst ones we've seen yet good morning as you are about to see these scammers make it really hard to spot a bogus gift card before you buy it something a member of our today family found out firsthand I got scammed the person scratches the back off and then rlues the card consumers posting warnings about comp
romised gift cards a crime that cost $228 Million last year the BARC code is not there anymore so you cannot do anything about it police from coast to coast warning about a surge in so-called gift card draining we want to let everyone know about the latest scam that we have gotten word of police a scammers steal these cards then they copy the card number and the security code then they reeal it you can't even tell it's been tampered with when you load money onto that card the scammer pounces and
drains it it happened to weekend today anchor and senior legal correspondent Laura Jarrett this is a very Grinchy moments with these gift cards right she purchased $2,000 worth of Vanilla gift Visa cards at this New York CVS only to find three of her pres to colleagues had scuff marks where the security code should have been and the funds drained from the naked eye these do not appear to be tampered with at all right not even a little bit all the seals look totally fine in fact it says on here
if tamper EV don't purchase so I checked it before I checked out everything looked good from the outside Laura showed us one card that appeared to be totally normal the barcode and security pin untouched but when we checked the card balance zero the money Laura loaded onto the card November 27th disappeared 14 days later one survey found almost one in four gift card recipients said they've received a card that was drained so I went back to that same CVS okay so here's where the gift cards are th
ey're kind of in the middle of the store not really under the watchful eye of anyone at the register so it's sort of easy to see how they could be tampered with from the outside they look secure and sealed I'd like to put $20 on each of these gift cards we have our gift cards eight of the nine cards appeared normal okay this one has a security code but then this one has the security code gouged out take a look that has absolutely been tampered with and we could not see that when it was in the pa
ckaging in statements to NBC News the retail gift card Association and vanilla GIF say in part criminals have come up with more innovative ways to card drain and they are working to stay ahead of it they urge the public to report any fraud to police and call the number on the back of the card CVS adds they're investigating our findings and say they warn customers about fraud RIS RS and urge employees to check gift card racks for tampered cards every day I had seen your segment so like I was on n
otic I knew that this was going to be an issue I just didn't think that was going to happen the me to avoid a scam some police say don't buy a physical gift card because it's nearly impossible to know which ones have been compromised if you do choose one that's closer to the register or better yet behind the counter recipients should check the balance and spend their gift cards quickly to reduce risk and buy with a credit card to increase your chances of getting a refund a lot of important tips
and fortunately for Laura she did pay with a credit card she got her money back as the credit card company is now investigating and remember the second you suspect fraud you want to file that report right away with police and your credit card company do not buy gift cards with a debit card cuz you have very little recourse cash I used the card and it didn't really work I don't know if I would tell you that it didn't work that's what they're banking on like so that's the thing cuz I I wouldn't wa
nt to make you feel bad but I'm so glad that they did and the recipients in this case also felt that way Chanel but thankfully they told Laura who happened to be there when I was there and was like Vicki figure this out let's help like let's work on this you got to speak up because thankfully she was made whole so Laura didn't lose the money the recipient still get the money or the gift right so you got to speak up you want to by the way kudos to Mary the hair stylist who came forward who actual
ly said to Laura hey Laura you gave me a bad car no she much more diplomatic and it was because she also noticed that another other of the recipients had nothing on the card show how quickly you use the gift card e gift cards any safer EEG gift cards can be safer in the sense you go right to that website you're buying it you're sending it to the recipient but you got to make sure it doesn't go to their spam folder it doesn't get deleted just the bottom line here be very careful just give cash ju
st write a check this smells like an inside job yeah I'm kind of with you but not to not not not not accusing anybody not accusing anybody but you know accusing somebody anyway uh up a look back at some of the memorable moments in 2023 Sports pop culture and more by the Numbers then later congratulations are in order actor Greta Lee live talking about her first Golden Globe nomination in a film getting so much Buzz third out of today we'll be right [Music] [Applause] back [Music] [Applause] [Mus
ic] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] ah the countdown is on to 2024 and so this morning we're going to look back at the year that was by the numbers here to break down 2023 is memorable moments NBC News business and data correspondent Brian Chun we always love it when we go by the Numbers we've never done it this way before this is this is something new and we're going to look back at kind of the big headlines in 2023 so let's start off obviously with AI so the
number I've got for you is 100 million that's how many weekly users are on chat GPT which really 100 million every week wow that's how many people are using it hopefully not students cheating on their homework and whatnot but again AI is blowing up like crazy that was the big story over the year but of course economically a few other things as well egg prices you remember at the beginning of the year like $5 a dozen we've seen a $268 decrease in egg prices it's about just over $2 a dozen on ave
rage now and it was also a good year for your 401K check this out 20% rise in the S&P 500 that was certainly good news for people that have money in a 401k and then the labor movement was big this year we saw the UAW sag Afra 405 strikes this year there were other small ones that we didn't even notice fast food workers pharmacies uh the like that's fascinating yeah a lot happened we've been talking about revenge travel for a couple of years now of course the pandemic ended a while ago but people
still seem to be like traveling a lot more than they did before the pandemic that's the thing people are still trying to catch up on experiences in 17.5% this is a stat that I actually didn't know before we researched this this was the share of flights from the United States that are international they were going to Cancun so Cancun specifically accounts for a lot of international travel four Americans I've only been once I didn't realize that many people go that's according to skift a lot of p
eople trying to get their passports obviously over 24 million passports were issued issued or renewed uh that includes renewals as well I believe yeah that's according to uh the US government and for those that are doing domestic travel New York City was the number one destination especially during the holiday time to check out of course the tree right here in Rockefeller Plaza but it's going to cost you a lot to travel for the holidays almost $2,000 on average per person was the amount uh that'
s going to be spent for holiday travel that includes everything plane ticket Hotel what have you so Brian big Sports year 2023 big Sports year so the first St I'm going to start off is with is 1142 million that's how many people tune in for the Super Bowl Kansas City Chiefs Philadelphia Eagles close match there but obviously a huge number there Remains the most watched show uh when it comes to other sport sports records though check this out new marathon world record was set this year at the Chi
cago marathon 2 hours and 35 seconds just a little lower than Chanel Jones Chanel was she was close she was close by the way that's about that's about a 4 minute 35 second ml absolutely insane uh 92,000 fans attended the mo most attended women's sporting event this year that was Nebraska they had a volleyball game you got to check out the photos it was amazing Memorial Stadium super cool and then lastly here points scored the previous record was 38387 points scored in the regular season in in th
e NBA that was Kareem Abdul Jabar eclipsed by LeBron James in February so was so so gracious when he when he he was I love this this is fun it's like a year in review all right let's talk about pop culture look at the money oh a lot of money $1.4 billion this was how much was generated by the highest grossing movie of the year which was Barbie I haven't seen it yet by the way I got to get around to it's I heard it's on streaming now so I'll be I'll be able to catch it you got your pink shoes I g
ot the pink shoes I'm already I'm already in the mood uh we also have uh the stat here 20,000 tickets were sold for barbin Heimer according to AMC people that went in and bought both at the same a billion dollars gross from Taylor ER tour 400% jump in Travis Kel I have a question don't judge do they get a cut from each jersey Soul does the team does right but Travis kelse get a cut but he's gonna get endorsements obvious everything again again it's great that Taylor put him on the map we're so h
appy for it's too bad you don't see him in any commercial exactly and then lastly 3.2 million copies of uh spare sold in the first week obviously for that was one of those 3.2 million there you go and I think we do we have one final number the big number big number right here this over the big number is 366 because that's the amount of days that are going to be in 2024 it's a leap year I didn't know that you know February 29th which just learned a lot I had an aunt who was born on February 29th
Aunt Marie okay little things you don't know about Chanel unbelievable all right [Music] [Applause] he [Music] 1 we are back with an actor who critics just can't stop buzzing about Greta Lee is known for playing supporting roles in shows like girls Russian doll and the Morning Show I heard of the morning show but apparently a lot of people watch that uh now she has stepped into a stirring role in past lives the film follows Nora and her childhood sweetheart who reconnect decades later and trying
to figure out how they fit into each other's lives and Nora's husband has some questions as well take a look is he attractive I think so he's really masculine in this way that I think is so Korean are you attracted to him I don't think so I don't know I mean I don't think so I mean look the position he's in that that really makes you feel good uh last week the film nominated for five Golden Globes including a best lead actress nomination for you GLE congratulations thank you so much that so exc
iting it is so so what was that like when you when you heard the news Well I I've never been nominated before and just the general idea of winning an award for acting this is all very new to me um and uh I didn't know that they announced them so early why I was not b in the glow for a while I get right that's it's out of generosity to have more hours to B but I didn't know they they announced it literally 5 5:30 in the morning and I was dead asleep my phone started blowing up and I thought there
was an emergency I love that and this is a pivotal moment for you because I was reading an article that said that you don't know that you can go back to what you were doing now that you've gotten this chance I mean when you have an experience like this it just feels so once in a lifetime and you know i' I've been working for almost 20 years and uh I've loved the supporting roles that I've got to play they're very near and dear to me and Nora was absolutely made from on the wings of of these wom
en that I've gotten to play but now that I've done this I don't know just makes it a little hard it's so good let's talk about the movie for a moment your character as we just saw has deep connections to two men so she has her husband and then now her childhood best friend so talk about that I mean you have fate Destiny all kind of playing a part here yeah I mean on the simplest level it is a sort of love triangle between these two men and it's based on a real life situation our the Seline song
our director and writer she actually found herself in a New York City Bar flanked between these two men her husband and actual childhood sweetheart wow yeah that was the seat of the movie um and my character is yeah navigating these two men who know and love her in two totally different ways well I mean it it sounds like the part was was designed for you but is it true that initially you did not get the role yes oh wow yeah yeah you know as it happens it I fell in love with this script and I fel
l hard uh so it hurt when I auditioned and didn't get it and not only that I got a phone call from a producer saying you know there's something really exciting we need to discuss and I assumed it was about the job and that phone call it turned out it was actually for Greta Gerwig oh they called the wrong called the wrong oh sorry not you which just added to my well yeah a little bit but then a year later say worked out pretty well I kind of feel like it's like a story book and also too listen yo
u know for you about the fact that like you know this breakthrough role coming in your 40s like it's just like it goes to show things are still happening yeah yeah and sometimes I mean that's what I've been thinking a lot about my child self and if I could tell her you know just hang in there and sometimes your dream just ends up even better than you could have ever imagined you know um I do I feel like all of this reflects kind of one of like the movie it's this idea of inan and Destiny this is
like a Korean wordan yeah and my whole experience in getting involved with a film it really I it it is it is this idea of of Fate it's that that's good things come to those who wait uh and this is a year uh Vogue said uh they caught they caught our eye Greta Lee has quietly become this year's best I mean that's something forget oh is this a thing that has fashion always been part of your life yes yes it has I think it's it is I've always uh subscribed to that idea that you know it's it's just a
nother expression of identity um I I've always loved it even yeah ever since I was a little girl I love hats too we saw this amazing delightful I'm like and in all those pictures you've got this kind of smoldering look and yet you've got this lovely here you're smiling and this is the many sides of gr ridiculous and did you guys also know that she went to Northwest University that was going to come up go cat go cat the pride of Northwest maybe we can make Northwestern magazine there you go for f
orget about Vogue Northwest magazine all right gret Le thank you so much thanks for so lovely having you here uh past lives available now to rent or buy that studio 824 it's like everything they touch now it's just gold coming up the best travel destinations in the year ahead whether you're you're looking for some fun in the sun maybe a big city maybe a different kind of Adventure Al together we've got you covered when the third hour of today comes right [Music] back [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1
1 [Music] 3 if one of your New Year's resolutions is to travel more in 24 then we have you covered I like what you did that sounds like one of your saying I know it does wait for it travel and Leisure is out with their list of the 50 best places to travel in 2024 there are beaches cities Outdoor Adventures you name it travel and Leisure editor and chief Jackie Gord is here to show us some of the big picks good morning to you welcome back guys good morning so let's dig right in here this first o
ne if you want a beach Vibe you say this happens to be the number one location huh Costa Rica it was actually our destination of the year for it takes so many boxes Adventure Wellness nature I don't know if you realize but Costa Rica is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth they have half a million species packed into 20,000 square miles oh this is beautiful here I mean come on it's just absolutely beautiful there's also the Camino to Costa Rica which was just unveiled it's a 200 mile track
that you do from the Caribbean coast to the Pacific side so again if you're into Adventure also the food is great there's an afro Caribbean culinary wow scene coffee just great great stuff there I've been wanting to go to caica for years so well now's their time sounds like a buddy up yes so this next city a full disclosure it's one of my favorite American cities I went three times when I was 25 um but a lot of folks find Vegas a little you know it's a little much you maintain Vegas should be v
isited by all I think Vegas is getting bigger and Bolder and better and I have to say the residency scene is amazing look to the sphere everybody's talking about it it's part of the Venetian it's a multi-billion dollar and it's not even really a Stadium concert venue it's like a multisensory experience and people are going to see they they really want to see Christina Aguilera and Kylie mogre coming to voler at the Venetian next year F1 has taken over and it's awesome in November and then also t
he Super Bowl is coming to the legion Stadium it's the first Super Bowl ever held in Nevada since the Raiders moved so SP it's now a sports town and in addition to all the other things that's good and oh by the way there's gambling and by the way oh there and food uh so if you want to immerse yourself in culture yes what do you suggest we're suggesting mati Crossing it's in Alberta Canada so this is a cultural center a Wildlife Park there's also a 40 room Lodge so it really dives into the indige
nous culture of the mati people and what they have are these beautiful skywatching domes so Northern Lights you can watch them literally from your room it's absolutely incredible and the summer it's an all year destination the summer you can go canoeing and hiking and then in the winter time it's all about snowshoeing and again it's really an indigenous Cultural Center Alberta they're projecting $125 million coming to the province in terms of indigenous tourism in 2024 Love That Let's talk about
the for the nature lover so many activities we can do at this next place yes Big Sky Montana so have you guys ever been there I I love it I was there actually last fall so again another place year round destination you want to go skiing I know Big Sky Mountain it's the third largest ski resort in North America they just unveiled they just renovated the Lone Peak Tram I should say so they've added seating it goes a little faster there's over 300 um uh ski runs and terrain it's just absolutely be
autiful and all sorts of abilities and levels so if you're a beginner you can totally feel comfortable there it's also close to Yellowstone National Park which is a huge bonus so I was able to go to Yellowstone right from that area new airlift coming in and more luxury hotels opening which is great last but not least a river cruise that features a lot of American History yes Mississippi River so again new boats have come to the area whether it's Viking American Queen voyages American Cruise Line
you can do a river cruise that really dives into the history of the American South the food the music going from say even New Orleans to Memphis you can go even on up further but River cruising provides a lot of value I should say too because of the fact that your food and your drinks it's all included how long is forgive my ignorance here how long typically is a river people could do you could do a week you could do even shorter so a lot of people again River cruising has sort of taken off it'
s actually there's it's a Tik Tok Trend um if you search River cruising there's a lot of people who have questions about it and post about it but the Mississippi River it's in our own backyard and again you get to dive into music and history and food there another buddy up for us guys a river cruise that was great thank you cuz we're going to travel more in4 here here more Chanel sayings coming up Wellness Wednesday we're going to tell you what it means to choose Joy and how to find some calm du
ring this busy season and later in today food we are so looking forward to this make your holiday dinner really stand out two Korean recipes that look and taste incredible third hour today I'll be right [Music] [Applause] [Music] back [Music] 1 [Music] [Applause] you [Music] on this Wellness Wednesday we are taking a moment during this busy stressful season to pause to Exhale and to Center ourselves in gratitude and joy you're here to help us put the cheer back in the holidays one of our favorit
e psychotherapist and author Nero Nero Feliciano uh good morning welcome back Nero thank you happy Holidays happy holidays so I mean listen this can be a really stressful time of year for for just about everybody you maintain that we can still even if we're struggling you can find joy in happiness or if you're not happy you can find Joy what's the difference between the two yeah it's it's Joy to the World season but when the world feels heavy when we're struggling with grief or loss fin fincial
stress or whatever it is we may not feel happy but happiness and joy are different happiness is circumstantial it's when things are going well for you when someone gives you a thoughtful gift or you have no traffic on the way to work or you pick the fast line temporary yeah in the grocery store which I never do by the way so um but joy is deeper and it's the happiness that doesn't depend on what happens you can choose Joy even in difficulty and when you do the things that elicit Joy then those f
eelings of happiness peace contentment follows how do you so how do you choose Joy I mean our moods kind of I I've always thought happened to us not from within within us actually there's more that you can do that elicit a positive response in your body neurochemically which affect how we feel connecting with loved ones people you care about spending time with them releases endorphins and mood elevating neurochemicals serotonin dopamine giving back that that doesn't have to be very complicated l
ook in the post office who needs help carrying a package who can you open a door for buy a coffee small dri yes the Endorphin release in giving back prayer and meditation so I pray for joy and I pray for Joy for grumpy people and it makes it difference but let me tell you what happens to your brain when we pray and meditate there's a whole field of science called neurotheology our frontal lobe gets quiet when we pray and meditate and what we experience then is a lightness of spirit and Awakening
and a calming peace we were wired for these types of practices that bring joy and then gratitude my favor so good okay let's do the last one gratitude and we're going to talk a little bit more about that but there is no joy without gratitude I'll tell you that is it more than just oh I let me name three things I'm thankful for today the sky the grass my kids you know what I mean like I feel like how do you go deeper than that or is that what it is it is three things a day for 21 days can wire a
negative mindset to optimism so don't knock the three things you but we want to getf andin our current circumstances to look for good things now you can experience that mood elevation with the three neurochemicals dopamine serotonin oxytocin but this piece is important Joy people who are joyful have lower levels of stress because stress and cortisol are BFFs long-term increase of stress increase in in inflammation your immune system dysfunctions at that point so it's more than just talk like th
ere there's actually signs behind it what it does for your brain and your body yes and endorphins bind to pain receptors so they literally block pain and all so there's a physical response yeah and all those things we talk about release those neurochemicals before we go I understand you've got a quick meditation that can actually help us yes learn to practice more gratitude yeah this takes two minutes you can do it while you're making your coffee waiting for the train glad comes from psychologis
t haral Alman G is for grateful we'll come back to that L give me something you've learned something I've learned to for someone else i' I I've learned over the last few months I'm more productive when I go for walks okay a something you've accomplished Marathon okay and DL something that brings you Delight uh my granddaughter oh this is a Twist on gratitude makes it more interesting and let me do the G I'm grateful for all of you you have to know your smiling faces the joy you bring may be the
only smiles people see in their day I know that from a therapist you have a far bigger impact than you realize On Healing in this world you won't know that impact This Side of Heaven but it's big your blessing have a Merry Christmas and I'm grateful for all of you you too favorite segment of the MTH thank you so much thank you thank I love that glad meditation we can do that every day do we should we do that yeah you can do it every day teach it to your kids we'll do it in between commercials ok
ay great and guess what we're about to experience some joy in today food because we're going to show you two amazing dishes that we can all serve to our families and friends this holiday season third hour today I'll be right back [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1 [Music] [Applause] 2 [Music] oh we have been waiting for this we are back with today food so maybe you're thinking about what to serve at your holiday festivities well we've got two standout recipes here to help us with some last
minute ideas Washington DC Bas chef and restaurant tour Danny Lee thanks for being apprciate smells so good stealing some earlier nobody doesn't like short ribs so you got a special take on this yeah so um what I wanted to do is Showcase a Korean inspired dish that would fit an American holiday table okay uh so we're doing a dish called cobby jeam so cby is uh beef short ribs inan uh G basically means a brace or almost steam MH um so if you want to start adding so we have some beef stock that's
been warming up here okay uh we have some grated ginger garlic soy you can just throw everything in it all goes in yeah yeah so right now we're just building flavor Ginger soy looks like we got some honey brown sugar oh brown sugar go ahead sh Craig that was Chanel's nickname in high school it was Danny loved that it's new for someone every day every time if you haven't heard it It's New to You soy sauce so this is soy so you know for the homecook anytime you're adding soy it's not just providin
g you know Umami and depth of flavor you also got to think about you're adding salt okay right so you want balance the salt with uh sugar so we're going to do multiple forms of sugar what is it uh that is mirin so Mir that's one of the ways we're going to a great balance out the soy sauce all right with the brown sugar oh brown sugar and then the honey so this is an Asian pair so Asian pairs are very very important to cre we use them at all our restaurants Mandu Cho anju um you can make pure out
of them it's a really good sugar substitute provides some natural sweetness to a dish I thought it was a potato so what we're going to do is just simply grate it it's delicious and you end up with something looks like this and that's grated onion actually that we're also going to have we're we're going to add that to the to the sauce here correct correct so we're add some grated Asian pear okay and then we have the grated onion how long so that is a yellow onion yellow sweet onion okay how long
do you let all of this cook so this is just a brazing liquid so we're going to bring that up to a boil everything then over here we move on we have the so boneless be short rib what I want to do is create a recipe where it's easy for the homecook to cut down some time and some steps so traditionally you would use bone in uh boneless Cooks a little bit quicker gets tenderer a little bit faster as well what we do is we par boil them what that means is we boil them for about 3 minutes get rid of s
ome of the impurities chill them and then we're going to throw them in to into the pot Danny this is It's amazing I mean even I'm a short rib sucker but these are fantastic well I always knew you were half right so wait so you hard boil it and then how long do you put them in there so these are going to be boiling um you're going to reduce the heat down to a simmer cover for about an hour and a half hour 20 minutes hour and a half okay and then you want to add some vegetables so over here we hav
e some carrots you even need vegetables that basically you just want to cook or cut into about inch long segments this is delicious I've said it 80 times but okay and then this is called moo or Korean radish moo mu okay so this it's uh similar to daon it's just it's you know kind of shorter and squatter cousin good so basically what you do is you cut it into wheels and you want to take the wheels and then quarter them no we don't want to forget about the our next correct this is delicious this i
s a yes so now what is this so another item I wanted to Showcase was bread is a really important part of any holiday spread uh this is a really traditional Korean street fruit called Kon bang or you pron Kon Pang ketan means egg bang means bread so it's a really traditional and really fun uh street vendor snack where you just see vendors all over the streets of Korea just making so we simply have a pancake mix okay uh we're going to add an whole egg okay vanilla extract okay it's funny I've neve
r tasted it I'm like wait I'm need to try curious little bit of oil okay some whole milk and there's already some sugar in the bowl as well it tastes like um just want to mix those together I don't know how I would describe it eggy bre is that bacon on top kind of sweet yep oh you go sweet and SE with that yum so it's almost like a pancake and bread go at a baby my kids would e so once this is done you have a buttered ramkin just going to fill it up about a third of the way with that whst batter
here's a fun part okay to build you're going to make a well with some shredded cheese M well you you know Danny we're going to put this on the on the website the rest of the recipe cuz we're just reminds me like oh and you put a little egg on oh that's fantastic add some bacon we're all set this is delicious fantas so it's a new taste delicious hope you enjoyed your Korean holiday table you bet well if you want these recipes and more go to today.com food thir hour today I'll be right back we're
going to my gosh I'm like going back and forth [Music] [Applause] n [Music] [Applause] 1 [Music] well done Chef well done uh tomorrow here on the third hour of today bestselling author and songwriter Rory Fe is live coming up on Hoda and Jenna a holiday performance by Nora Jones you know when the food's really good we don't want to go over there can you tell cuz then we can keep eating have a great day we'll see you tomorrow thank you Danny [Music] today the story of a Philadelphia rapper Who's
changing young children lives go inside his inspiring journey to help a community in need plus take your holiday outfits to the next level with these ey catching accessories and Grammy winner Nora Jones performs a holiday classic for us live from Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza it's today with Hoda and Jenna it all starts right now hey everybody welcome welcome welcome it's Wednesday December 20th it's right there we are getting into the countdown we're inside of a week 5 days we're good at ctin
g you know what I did this this year we went to the CVS or the Dwayne Reed and Mila asked for one of those Christmas countdowns you know with the blocks with the blocks so she has been counting down since when since before Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving and she will say Alexa how many days till Christmas Even though you just have to minus one and they have been so excited this is this is either the funnest time while you're waiting or the most panicky because you haven't bought anything but gu
ess what it doesn't matter I know every year we say the same thing so I always say I'm only going to get the girls a couple of presents three presents each or something like that okay and then inevitably right around this time now you start to panic well because you're like they're going to open their presents in 5 minutes and then Christmas is over then you're like maybe we should add a couple of more just little things yes but little things or you get yeah I know or what happens is then your m
om also gets them some brings her things and your sister and your sister and the your brother and his wife and their kids and then you have a lot of presentence under the tree Okay so we've said it every year but we're saying it again we're going to go a little lighter and just show the love it's like what else can we do first of all you don't even care about filling time no so why would you care if they open it in 3 seconds who cares don't care about that we don't care you do want some there's
something about the Delight of a present you're big on giving experiences I really love experiences the issue is like we gave um we one year I gave a trip to Disney World which was the big thing and that was basically I mean they got little things like Elsa they were younger dolls we were be in Florida anyway we just drove there for two nights um we one time gave a trip to Universal um sometimes we gave tickets to something a museum visit but I'm running out cuz they don't have to all be really
big experiences but I run out what what else is there um nothing you could do yeah it's hard you do maybe a theater maybe yeah or another concert I don't know so anyway the point is I just think kids want to to open something but they also want to be excited for something to come you know you want to give them something that's going to be fun for you all to do as a family I've been trying to I say this every year but this year I actually think it's going to work so instead of thinking like here'
s an example the other night my kids got in bed with me whenever it was 2 in the morning and both of them at two in the morning uhuh both so ho hope had thrown up the night before she wasn't feeling well yeah and I was thinking oh gosh she's not feeling well I have to make sure she gets a good breakfast wish she's sick I've already temperat and my head was spinning spinning spinning and they're both there and I'm thinking okay so I'll make breakfast I'm going to check this I've got to make sure
that this you know and I had a whole bunch going and all of a sudden I just dead stopped in that spinning and I I I literally stopped and I looked down at their heads they were nestled in so deep and I thought to myself right now yeah these two girls want nothing more than to be right next to me as deep into me as they can possibly get and instead of my usual which is I got to do this got to do that uhoh how much time back timing everything forget it forget it yeah and just to say like and I smi
le I was laying there I was smiling I was like oh my God I have these two kids just them because I keep reading these things and every time I I get distracted with something else I'm trying to remind myself like live in it it's right that's it man because you know what's so funny too is when you just said that my memories of time with my mom when I was little was that was being I like this is just like my most profound memory being probably around four or 5 years old laying on my mom petting she
had a cat sweater cuz it runs in our family and I was petting the how it was like furry I was sucking my thumb and I was right in her and it's like we weren't doing doing anything it wasn't a trip it wasn't a present do you remember you told me that you when you took poppy to New Orleans and how profound that was not because you went you could have gone to them allall it didn't matter but it was just the two of you it could be things like that it could be and you do it all the time and it doesn
't have to be fancy you bring her to your office and you live the C are always the same yeah they come here to NBC what they want to do yeah and it also gives you time to sit with them only them and be seen let them be seen and that could be Christmas too like instead of rushing like because my mom is always telling me sit down sit down and I realized like this this past Thanksgiving I did I did I did do that and I and it was so much better fun who cares if we're we don't have enough plates like
we we're fine yeah did you ever get the forks no I only have look you know what she has six forks have six forks yeah that's and not for six people but not not for and you don't want to have I know we had I'm going to get you some Forks they have them on Amazon but they're very short no no I think we have to go and test taste you make sure it doesn't cut me um okay so Bumble has released its annual dating Trends forecast what do they predict guess what they're predicting cross generational rela
tionship known as a gen blend are expected to Surge wait so like May December no no cross generational that means yeah May December May December what does that mean wait May December it's like December's old and may is Young it's like the same thing they they call it may December does anybody else not understand what's happening here thank you Zach okay thank you Jen Zer see this is a cross generation dating right now you know may December is don't leave us alone thank you thank you raise your h
and if you know what that means two people no three okay raise your hand if you don't know what that means all right baby wait the cameraman are not raising their hand Jimmy but I know you know may DEC I'm on camera I'm busy he's very busy doesn't know what it means okay so all that means is it means that we're saying the same thing but just using different terminology an older person and a younger person date cross generational May December is that the new Natalie Portman movie is that what tha
t means is that why it sparked in your mind yes Natalie Portman has a movie out called May December all right well basically would you ever dat a younger man yeah you would well it depends on on like maturity and depth and stuff because you can date someone your own age or older and it doesn't necessarily mean that you connect totally I think connection curiosity people who have you know who are just kind of seeking like I'm into that so if it's younger it's younger if it's older it's older like
who cares May December May December May December so a majority of women admitted they are open to dating someone younger yeah celebrity couples have hit this who who well Eva Mendes and Ryan gos that's six years that's not that come on no prianka Chopra 11 years older than Nick Jonas and you know Nick was pursuing her and she was like no no no in the beginning oh really yeah I didn't know that and obviously share oh yeah did you he share at the parade you don't know how desperately you mean you
mean the Macy's day parade parade around Thanksgiving well it was Thanksgiving I'm sorry when you got that from I tried desperately to get her attention it was not to happen because she you never got to sh no she came out from a car got onto a stage that was preset right there at Herold Square sang her song she made eye contact with Andy Cohen but not with you no and I tried but it wasn't happen were you going were you doing sh I tried it it didn't work but it was but she by the way she was awe
some and she was also great at the tree lighting I didn't get to see her there either but she's Sayang with Darlene amazing all right you guys so a lot of us may be catching up on movies around this time so a article in the Washington Post takes a look at how each generation is defined by its movies okay so in the 70s there was Saturday Night Fever there was Grease and there was Jaws jaws was a big one did you see jaws I saw Jaws it was totally Terri I would say that gree defined also the80s cuz
I'm a child of the 80s and we continued to watch the80s Breakfast Club of course 16 candles and say anything I loved those movies I never saw say anything OD what I never saw say anything I saw the other two see breakfast CL yes of course everyone saw Breakfast Club okay and then the '90s there was Louise clueless andom Al that was a great generation yes it that was a great one right there thelman Lou and clueless see clueless yes I saw I love what about alone no oh yeah I saw home alone but I
love the other two yeah me too Lou although my home alone has stood the test a Time home alone and clueless clueless have both yeah stood the test of time I I watched clueless with my kids and do they like it they loved it yeah I mean it's some of it is slightly inappropriate but it's yes it's very mingly um I so I thought Almost Famous even though I was in college when it came out and clueless sort of defined Almost Famous was My Generation I love that movie so good I love movies like that I sa
w it in the theaters you did did you I don't who can recall at this point the New York Post headline it grabbed our attention Jen Z cannot stop using slang at work okay so 10 terms that annoy their colleagues the most we're going to take a quiz to see if we know the lingo okay let's see here we go first one sus I know this one from my child which is sus means like Su suspect yeah yeah okay we understand short for suspicious well suspect and suspicious well don't try to make it happen they synony
ms y'all next f r Wait what for for racing Wait f r like you say it f r f I've never heard never heard it the answer is a for real oh God sometimes I like saying IRL and like IRL just be on IRL or bet which is it wait what bet is it bet bet like I bet you like when I bet you when I double dug dir you to go like bet it's a way of saying yes or I agree bet please don't use that ever ever okay last one period done like and and I don't think that's so gen I think that we've heard that before okay th
is is the best pasta period you guys we've been saying that since Clueless has been around even before that it sure has it's been around since the dawn of days dawn of days coming up what do you do if you know your friend regifted your gift because you saw it at another friend's house bu saw some girl code d right after oh that's a good one can you imine it's like where did you get that [Music] [Applause] plant [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause
] [Music] every morning get into the holiday spirit with today we're going to spread some holiday cheer some added inspiration to give back this holiday season we are launching today's toy drive holiday gifts for everybody on the list that is delicious our biggest holiday crowd [Applause] yet 2 1 make today your home for the holidays we are ready to help you solve some of your stickiest friendship dilemmas that's right it's time for Girl Code holiday all right first up I was at my girlfriend's f
or a holiday party and I noticed a pretty vase on her mantle and she said our friend Julie gave it to her as a gift the only issue I gave it to Julie for her birthday last year should I say something who is she going to say something to Julie or the other girl she would have to say something to Julie and the answer is no y'all everybody Rifts regifting is part of the girl code if you don't regift what do you even have to give yeah you know what you're go to the store every time you're right and
by the way Julie didn't like the vase that's why she regifted it well or maybe Julie it's okay I'm sorry maybe Julie didn't have space for it okay or maybe Julie didn't have a present last minute and just said oh I'm just going to give this base I don't need much so I'm I wonder if Julie was there too cuz then it would have been sticky yeah cuz if you're both to just be like us and sweep it under the rug and pretend she didn't see the V passive aggressive way to go okay here's the next one my gi
rlfriend invited me to a holiday party or co-workers I asked her what I should wear and she said something casual and comfortable when I arrived to pick her up she was decked out in a sequin dress did she break the girl code yes she did that is comfortable and Capal if we don't remember anything from Legally Blonde we remember the time she showed up at the party dressed up like a play booy bunny that was so good we don't want to do that for our friend you're so right you're so right that is not
cool and I mean maybe your friend forgot that she told you that or maybe she told you it earlier maybe her version of cozy and Casual is a sequin dress I don't think so I don't think so either are they still friends I wouldn't be okay here's the next one next I was recently at a white elephant party with my friend everyone knows I love Bourbon and I was excited when I picked a bottle as my present she then stole it from me because she said her husband loves bourbon am I right to be furious no yo
u guys the point of a white elephant party is to steal things to regift okay okay look I know you love bourbon but so does Jimmy and she like anything else and the white elephant party you do steal that's the point so you can't be mad when your thing gets stolen because the point of it okay I'm going to say something highly controversial what is a white elephant party I'm being totally serious I don't know okay I'll try to explain it to you I used to do it with my whole family okay what is it so
you pick a number out of a hat okay pretend there's 20 people there everybody brings one gift you can do these steals sort of wait so first you say I got a one and I get the cup so you get to pick first okay okay so I got the cup the cup so now it's my cup so now what now I open this Arrangement no no okay now it's my turn I can either steal your your cup oh you can take it or I can open this Arrangement it's the point of the game so you've never gone to a white I've never been invited to one a
pparently you've had plenty of them but I don't never I didn't host them I would invite you by the way our team has one every year well are you inviting us okay thank you last one my friend and I go holiday shopping every year together this time she showed up with her two-year-old daughter and never told me before everyone's cranky yes sometimes people don't have childh care maybe the babysitter canceled is this a girl code violation we can't we can't blame the the 2-year-old put her to sleep an
d go have a drink I mean what can you do stroll her around just get a stroller you're right and just let her around and she'll sleep and y'll just enjoy your holiday head by the way the mall at this time is kind of stressful anyway so attitude no no no people got to go to the mall you know why people are not going to malls God stop stop making me depress that's a girl code violation you got to go to the malls and Shop do your last minute shopping at the malls it's okay with the 2-year-old stop y
eah it's okay it's okay it's okay so if you have a girl code question for us go to Hod and jenna.com hit the connect button okay coming up the story of one man giving back to his hometown in a beautiful beautiful way [Music] next [Music] [Applause] he [Music] he [Music] I woke up smiling on my face yeah yeah yeah no care no trouble in my way yeah yeah yeah the sun is shining where I go yeah yeah yeah that's how I know yeah that's how I know going going to be a good day it's time for a series we
love it's called changing chapters it's when my dear friend Karen Swinson brings us a story of somebody who's taken their life in a different and sometimes unexpected Direction you have a good one today it is fabulous so good to see you again I want to introduce you all to Anthony Samuels A Philadelphia ra whose day job is being the owner of young with options daycare not a traditional career combination but one that works beautifully for Anthony and the families he serves this is Anthony Samuel
s also known as Dappa he spends his nights rapping on stage but his days well his days are very different they're spent here at Young with options a daycare founded and run by the 31-year-old rapper what do I see up here a f a fish it's a business venture inspired by his own upbringing I grew up in probably like the worst area in Philadelphia it's in North Philadelphia and where we are right now is one of the worst areas as far as crime and poverty so they're very similar environments my father
was incarcerated some of my life and my mother you know she worked fulltime Anthony was the first person in his family to graduate college I would imagine that comes with a lot of responsibility absolutely I can't do any wrong I'm the one that you know you got to be doing good the star boy that's what my my dad calls me my dad calls me his Golden Child after graduating he became an accountant while he kept one foot in the music business but the rappers soon realized that he had a different calli
ng kids he wanted the children of Philadelphia to realize that they too are young with options are you a father figure to many of them absolutely I try to do more of like the big brother approach you know what I mean I don't want anyone to ever mistaken me as their father but I do try to be that positive male figure in their life young with options is a daycare and after school program they also have a dance studio where kids can come and be creative free of charge let's put one inside the water
denell Jordan's daughter spent the first 5 years of her life here my daughter took her first steps here she learned how to write her name she learned everything here so this is like home for us Dell is now the assistant director I feel like a lot of people trust us in this community because I always tell people sometimes we have to understand where somebody is coming from or where they've been in order to be able to help them better when did your daughter realize that Mr Anthony is also Dappa o
h goodness we were in the car one day and my daughter was in the back seat and she's vibing out to the music and then she sits up at her car seat and goes that's Uncle Anthony and I was like how do you know she said I know his voice I said well on here he's not Uncle Anthony he's Dappa right now it seems like he's gifted that he can keep his eyes ahead constantly climbing and yet somehow keep his eyes behind him and bringing others up with him if he's moving forward he doesn't want nothing more
but for everybody to be moving forward to it's like the train is moving get on let's go he's always carrying everybody with him not only provide a service obviously for the children but for their parents too absolutely they're dropping their kids off and going to work and they're working some long hours and they're doing their thing as well and we've dealt with families that have been in shelters there's been families of four or five that's coming through here and they couldn't fund their Christ
mases and I've done that there's Blood Sweat and Tears in here but there's a lot of your own hard-earned cash tell us about some of the struggles you have and what needs TLC around here I would like to redo our playground I think that would be great it just so happened that we had a special surprise planned for Anthony and the children at Young with options step two what do you think about this would like to give you $5,000 worth of products to spruce up this area here for the kids love you teac
h the ABCs you teach music you teach acting you teach exercise and play how do you teach hope it's hard to teach hope without showing it so I just try to make sure you can see me in a positive of light at all times so it's like I can be happy even in my environment or even in my condition oh my gosh so beautiful yes I love him love him and you're going to see him on the big screen too cuz he also acts so he's you know he's rapping with Machine Gun Kelly he's acting in major Motion Pictures he's
he's going he spends his day giving back mean what an amazing man one of 15 children wow one of 15 he just making the whole family and the whole city of Philadelphia an incred awesome thank you made us all take your holiday looks to the next level with some simple accessories right after [Music] this [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Music] he hi everybody good morning welcome to today every day we are adding to the star power in our studio the biggest names only on today see it worth comin
g this early right everybody it's today like I won the lottery how do you feel at this age this stage liberated we're just getting started folks Ain no stop with a The Boys Are Back In Town boys are back in town theath theath this has been fantastic everything and everyone you're talking about only on today from Office parties to family get togethers during the holidays there's always a reason to get a little glammed up yeah here to show us how to complete those looks with some fashionable acces
sories is style expert Melissa Garcia hi Melissa so good to be back often we have like the staple but you it doesn't feel like it's good for late at night for a beautiful party and you think there's a couple of things we can do to shush it up yes okay let's get to our beautiful model kelse to work with us what's her base so her base so her base we pulled something for an elevated holiday party right so a base here I love winter whites this is a great way to do it just do an ivory this set is gre
at or if you have something you can use this is under $100 right now from Nordstroms wow and then we wanted to have fun like you says it up so we stuck with the theme of red red is like such a great holiday color but it's also a big Trend we're seeing is red we started with her tights how fun are these so we're seeing these super saturated opaque red TI I can everybody pull those off I don't know I mean Kelsey can but Kel looks amazing you can pull them off it's if you're you have a confidence l
ike right they're definitely Mak and it is a holiday statement holiday so she could also wear this to work and then you know put this on later up later so the I love the tights really fun then we've stuck with a red shoe too for steeve m just to lengthen and elongate keep the eye moving up and down Kelsey's already really tall this just makes her a little bit taller and then really fun we can add some fun access so here's a cute bag a little sequin bag from mango oh my God look at her I've been
there's such a huge Trend that we're seeing I'm going would you ever wear a bow look at me can I guess in look at me here want me to help and I'm really short and I'm wearing a massive heel right now I think we got it yeah you got it oh my gosh turn around how cute I mean really fun and FES Kelsey that's beautiful and what what's going on here so if you really wanted to take it up a not instead of wearing the Blazer clothes you can put something like a bouier like this underneath wear it open a
little bit sexy not too sexy and of course a red lip this one is great from nude sticks and the whole look gorgeous all right hi K this is kind of a cozy family hang exactly so if you're going to your house your family's house your friend's house you want to just be simple everyone has jeans and a sweatshirt right so these jeans are from abber cromie the sweatshirt is from The Gap if you wanted to just refresh yours but what I love again more red for the season but we're going to again J it up w
e stuck with the theme of gold accessories I feel like gold and red just feel fusted right so we're gonna first pop on how cute those ear earrings I'll give you this one to pop on here's the back these are really fun these are from Electric PS we're seeing a lot of hearts and like fun geometrics kind earrings as well here's puff I'm going to let it's probably easier we can't do it we and the shoes we wanted to keep a flat to keep her comfortable these are from Nordstroms really adorable these an
d they have a rubber bottom so super walking in the ice walking walking in the ice and snow and then a gold belt this is from J crew I can start and just we'll just pretend here I'll just I'll just come around pulls together beautifully I love how it's casual but pulled together casual together looks super cute and great if you want to be comfortable like jeans and a sweatshirt all let's go to Jackie this is a night out this base outfit we all have a little black dress yes exactly which is like
a blank canvas you do so much with but this one we really wanted to have fun so we played with sheer accessories we're seeing a lot of this sheer mesh we started with the shoes so the shoes are great how cute with the big bow we're talking are they comfortable are they comfortable yes they are you look beautiful how gorgeous does she look so these are from Steve Madden this dress again is gorgeous I mean if you have a little black dress take yours this is from abber cromie under $100 this dress
really fun and pretty and then I love love love this where find this is from mango this is like a statement piece so this is gorgeous totally trans what are you doing you look magnif ridic like ridiculous it totally changes my God wait wait but look at the front stand look at the camera look at that so gorgeous guess what she's about to do gloves could be because why not so we're seeing a trend with these Opera gloves more mesh really sexy really fun these are from mango about like $13 and it re
ally changes how fun it feels like very Regal with the gloves but how gorgeous are these and then you just judge them a little bit you have that whole sheer Vibe this feels this is like for New Year's Eve black the cape you know I love about the cape it's all sizes because it works for all of us yes it work for everyone that's great thank you yeah you have a lot of fun well you know what Melissa thank you thanks Melissa thanks awesome jobs guys more on these looks head today.com shop coming up a
holiday serenade from the very talented Nora Jones that's [Music] next SM of white but I have a blue Blue [Music] Christmas [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the city music series on today is proudly presented to you by city for more than 20 years nine time Grammy Award winner Nora Jones has been wowing us with her incredible voice we're going to catch up with her in a moment but first she's going to perform all be home for Christ
mas off her Christmas album I dream of Christmas take it away [Music] Nora [Music] I be home for Christmas You Can Count On Me please have snow and so to and [Music] presence under the tree Christmas Eve will find me where all the love light be be home for ch Christmas if only in my [Music] dreams Christmas Eve will find me where where the love light Beams I be home for [Music] Christmas if only in my [Music] dreams wo wow wow oh my God your cholate notes no bounds welcome to my piano bar by the
way way we love it we'll come all the time thank you thank you Nora nor is going to stick around to chat with us right after this that was beautiful literally LP lay on top [Music] onug [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] he we are back with singer and songwriter Nora Jones who just performed a performed a beautiful rendition of I'll Be Home for Christmas for all of us we love your piano bar this is so it's so beautiful I know we like to just lean post up on your piano um okay this
album is so beautiful it feels like it's not Christmas without you here um what what what was it like putting this together uh well the the the original album came out a couple years years Ag and we keep adding stuff every year to it you know digitally it's easy to do and so I think this song came a little later that I'll Be Home for Christmas it's so beautiful to hear Le is is a person who's also a Grammy nominated singer uh she plays the uh cello and she's incredible and you guys team up on t
his album as well right yeah we put out a a two song little um limited thing and and it's been so fun she's an incredible musician and singer she she really is inredible and your voices together I mean it's insane when you know what there are a lot of parents who watch the show and I know their kids take piano lessons so I was imagining young Nora Jones who was told to take piano lessons did you enjoy it when you were playing did you ever quit the piano you did you did you're giving us hope yeah
well actually I think my mom had a good way to deal with it cuz I wanted piano lessons which is why we got the piano and then as soon as I started having to learn skilles I wanted to quit immediately and she said you can quit after you take for 5 years at least you'll have a foundation I was like okay 5 years on the dot I quit wow you did and then and had a great teacher I just I don't know so what happened after that after that I think she took me to like a a like a big band concert and I got
kind of interested in jazz and then I found a teacher who taught um that kind of the fun piano you like well it just was a different way of yeah teaching yeah so you got back on that's good I got back think it's such good advice but there there must have been something your mom or your teacher saw in you because really are just talented did you always have that sort of basis of of Music genius as we see it now well I don't know if I go that far but thank you yeah um I I think I was always Musica
l and I always sing in church choir so I always had a natural singing thing yeah what's Christmas like at your house by the way it's fun cuz I have kids seven and nine so that's fun it's the prime time cuz I have a 8-year-old and a 10-year-old okay you also have this great podcast every loves it oh thank you it's so interesting you're talking with other musicians you perform with other musicians not magicians musician are you got Dave Gro you had Quest love so what happens you talk and then all
of a sudden some natural music and playing happen yeah well we plan for about four songs so that I can do my homework in case they're their songs and and we really just do them we talk and play the songs together is it is that feel dream like to get to perform with some of these people that I'm sure you've admired yeah I mean it's so fun and it also it's it's less of a performance it feels more like a musical conversation that way that way we're we're not just talking we're actually doing the th
ing that we're talking about together you have so many people you've talked to Dave gro we said Quest Love Is there any who else is on your who's your dream so many I mean you know everyone of course Dolly paron but she's our she's anyone everybody yeah but she's busy so I'm sure she'll do itl what she probably will Dolly do Dolly likes our show Dolly Nora wants you in 2024 let's do it Nora Jones and Dolly Parton the collab I love it I had Le on the podcast it was really special she's amazing no
r thank you so much her album is called I dream of Christmas is available wherever you get your music thank you thank youa for right after this I can't believe you quit 5 years to day like remember first of off my mom said five [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1 1 [Music] 1 [Music] thank you so much for being with us coming up tomorrow the hilarious Mario Canton will be here fun Plus Dana Roberts Rous is here with the seasons must have items and my favorite Ru Jenna auor Lauren grodstein she's going t
o stop by bye guys see you [Music] tomorrow it is true The Most Wonderful Time of the Year spending time with family friends and the people we love and how do you show that love why with some sweet treats of [Music] course sweets are great you really can't say no to sweets our holidays revolve around food everything is food all the good food the sweets the cookies the treats the candy the cakes the pies I could go on for a long time time to head out of Studio 1A and hit the road for a new kind o
f culinary Adventure follow me as I taste some of the most iconic Foods around the country and meet the families behind them together we're going to learn how a good meal has the power to connect us to our past our future and each other one of my favorite holiday traditions is coming to see this fabulous Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and folks from all around the country love doing it too and speaking of from all around the country there's a baker in Brooklyn who's bringing a little taste of
Mexico to everyone who wants [Applause] it Don Paco Lopez Panaderia has been serving up Fresh Mexican pastries for 30 years and its customers have been lining up for just as long I've been coming here all since they open they're very well known in the neighborhood very nice well I've been a customer since I was about 5 years old I've been coming to thebo since I was very small maybe like 3 or 4 years old and now I teach across the street so I come every morning before work but they're going to
treat you like family that's because they are family hello Miguel oh how are you sir to lope panad ah gracias this Bakery isn't run by just one person but eight siblings their parents and extended family everybody have to be involved one way or another and at this time of the year it's all hands on deck because one of their most popular treats Rosa daras or Kings bread reign supreme on January 6th many Mexican families enjoy this traditional sweet bread decorated with candied fruits and a little
baby doll hidden inside it's a reference to Jesus Christ so it's about celebration a celebration called King's Day which marks the three wise men's visit to the manger now this sounds familiar that's because New Orleans famous king cake shares the same Catholic Roots dating back to Medieval France for the lopezes it's more than just a holiday it's the bakery's busiest time of year so everyone grabs an apron to help out realite for cras instead of Thanksgiving or well you know you're going to se
e your whole family at least once a year once a year yeah I can see my father and my mom very proud to see everybody is working 24 hours we talking about 30 family family members coming and do the r what's it like working with family because that's a great thing but sometimes maybe not such a great thing yeah that's that's true sometimes we don't agree with everything but the most important thing is that at the end of any discussion goodbye I love you it's something that we have that uh from our
parents and that's not the only lesson that's been passed down in the Lopez family The Knack for baking goes back Generations as well Miguel's grandfather was a baker in a cataland asorio a small town in Mexico he passed on his craft to his son Francisco Miguel's dad who later moved here to New York City with his family my father immigrated in 1972 73 and he start working in the um restaurant business I said this washer but the dream of baking bread and pastries never left him that's when his k
ids stepped in together they opened Don Paco Lopez Padia we say why not to open a bakery so we have started in 1991 we opened the business to survive for three decades not just survive but to to to do so well to be such a part of the community take something special what is it about this place it's so special that everything that we make everything that we bake or cook in this place we do it with pride with so much love and that family pride is clear in their recipes so it was time for me to try
my hand at making their popular holiday treat so Miguel I who these youngsters here oh look Don Paco Lopez my father my mom Lopez does he remember making his his first r eight years old you were 8 years old his father my grandfather he used to put a wood uh box so he can reach the table and teach him how to make Ras who's the better Baker him or you yeah that's right baby yeah still the original now it's Rosa time the first step is creating the Ring of dough like these oh yeah that's a piece of
cake yeah piece of bread and after we have it we put it up upside down to High baby jues all right everybody knows there's a baby Jesus in cuz you're taking a bite and all of a sudden oh no no no nobody wants to bite baby Jesus making Rosa is hard work and it takes everybody in the family to meet customers demand how many will you do in a day Miguel to satisfy or demand they have to be almost 2,000 2,000 2 ,000 2,000 a day yeah 2,000 a day very good H but any chance you're looking for um anothe
r job one of the siblings don't show up I'm ready okay perfect that's good that we have record we decorate the Rosa de Rees I prefer to start with a with the cherries then I can start with the orange peel so basically it's to make make cers around look at that it's beautiful taada ah it's a thing of beauty and so once you you you've done this then will it you put it in into the oven right no they have to they have to see they have to prove at least like 20 minutes depends how the weather is that
affects the proof yeah definitely that's why you need a weatherman working oh yeah that that's why you are here after the sweet bread sits time to go into the oven if I can ask your mom what does it mean to pass this tradition on for her is very proud to pass to the Next Generation oh well it's obviously in good hands and I mean many hands and I believe you've got a few other family members around just a very small just a couple coming in guys wow oh my gosh wow look at this do you know and the
y're still coming and they're still coming wow my gosh the small family of thees wow this is one heck of a nice sweet family uh I guess every we should all try a little piece don't forget if you get baby Jesus uhhuh you have to throw a party you have a party oh yeah wow you oh oh w w I didn't I didn't see that oh my gosh well all right party at my here's to a wonderful tradition thank you for sharing it with us thank you thank you graas up next the delicious reason philadelphians line up outside
this Italian bakery every Christmas [Music] [Applause] Eve [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] when you think Christmas treats you usually think fruit cake or Christmas cookies but if you're in the City of Brotherly Love canoli are synonymous with Christmas Philly is known to be full of grip we'll get through anything no one knows that better than tery Brothers Bakery over the last 100 years this family-owned shop has faced a great depression and a global Pand pi
c but for them there's no challenge bigger than the holidays the Super Bowl for us every year is Christmas Eve Christmas Eve at termines is something that is of its own we got a long line of folks here that have been waiting for a long time to get these and people wait all year for the special day every year on December 24th hundreds of people wrap around the block to be among the first to grab a classic Italian treat for their holiday celebration I mean people drive from Baltimore they drive fr
om Boston I we've even had people fly in from California to be here to be in that line people are lining up at the front door at 12:00 at night and they'll sit there with chairs and food when we open the door at 6:00 we bring everybody in we're hugging we're kissing we have music people that are unaccustomed to you know what Christmas Eve at termines is ask questions like are people crazy is it that good and they miss the point of why people are outside it's a sense of community it's it's a Phil
ly thing as Philly some say as their famous canoli there's many many products that we make that are special to so many different people here but nothing is more dynamic or speci special to our customers than our canoli got to come and get the canoli best canoli around the shell is never soggy and it's cream based and it's got these little chocolates in it and it's just absolutely perfect they taste that tradition they taste that flavor it's hard to find and hard to duplicate a terminy canoli [Mu
sic] perfect [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] h [Music] [Applause] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] today we are going to make probably about 4,500 4500 Canoles today hearing my grandfather's story um about how much passion he had with these recipes being that they came from his hometown in Sicily it forces you to to realize that this isn't just a product you know this is a legacy and it needs to be handled with respect and care the legacy of the bakery dat
ing back to the early 1920s when jeppe terminy immigrated to America from his home in Italy and joined his brother Gano here in Philadelphia he left his family and everything that he knew to come to a country he knew nothing about didn't speak the language had no idea about what he was walking into somehow found a way with his brother to be able to start just a little tiny kitchen and Brick by Brick grew this business into something that he can pass on to his son after opening it doors on this s
ame street in 1921 tery Brothers quickly became the go-to place for all types of cakes cookies and of course canoli jeppi terminy turned his little corner bakery into a landmark of sweet sentiment how are you Mr charm okay people would say what's your secret and he didn't get into a real long- winded thing his answer was stuff just make good stuff that's all it was very admirable even in his later days when he was in his 90s he was working seven days a week when the store was closed he would sit
here in the store this was his life this was his life jeppe taught the business to his only son Vincent senior who would later grow up running the bakery his sons Joseph and Vincent Jr were by his side learning the Family Trade we realized we have something very very special here so we kind of knew as we got older that this was the path that we wanted to take before long it was time for them to live up to the tery brothers name and take over as new owners my father has that Sicilian Philly bloo
d in him he's a stickler to the rules you know it took him a little bit of time to really trust what Vinnie and I are doing here I remember when we were first shipping out our Canoles he was so happy to look at the addresses and see where they were going today's a little warm up 5 or 600 and in about two or 3 weeks we'll be looking at about maybe 2,00 2200 boxes he was going I can't believe it it's going to Arizona it's going to California look this one's going to Hawaii and you know I think it
was at that point that my father had had had 100% trust that the business was going in the right direction although some things have changed over the last century a lot has stayed the same but this was my grandfather's favorite machine is it the most efficient no is it cranky in the morning yes it's like an old man this machine but all of these the benches our steam cattles you know our gas stove they're all origal another constant over the years philadelphians love for termines literally it's o
ur wedding day so we figured we do what we enjoy we we've tried many Canoles in the area and probably these are the best by far now Joseph and Vincent Jr are adding their own chapter to the bakery Story preparing to reopen at its original location across the street turning it into a small Cafe it says on this spot the tradition began Germany Brothers Pasa founded March 19th 1921 this is is where it all started this is where it was in 1921 was two brothers and they used to bake in the back these
were the original L fixtures that my grandfather had took very very good care of them because they're very rare so this is the original deed this is the kind of artifact that we're planning on putting up but for now time to get ready for another Christmas Eve termin 100th to be exact it's probably the most stressful 15 minutes of the entire year when we're getting ready to open that is it not it is and it's the same people every year and then it adds on you know so if you can imagine over in the
last 100 years the line's like down on the Block we look at this line at Christmas Eve like they're a part of our family and I also enjoy Christmas Eve at the end um we normally gather around with our staff everybody cuz this is a team effort a family effort and without everybody putting their lives on hold for a period of time to make this family tradition so special it would never happen then I get a text from you every year saying yo bro did great so proud of you I can't believe he got throu
gh it and you know it's uh it's a tremendous feeling goes to show nothing's too tough with a little Philadelphian grit and you're bro by your side working with my brother is truly an honor I I can't even put in the words what it feels like to know that regardless of opinions or disagreements or uh different philosophies that there was always somebody there that has your back no matter what I can't imagine like one person you know taking over a third generation business and not having a sibling t
o lean on or count on I love that I get to work with my brother every day coming up an old-fashioned holiday craft finding a new generation of fans on Tik [Music] [Applause] [Music] tock [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he [Music] [Applause] man I got to tell you on Tik Tok Logan's candies 5 million of you love their videos and and guess what probably almost as many love their candies for decades but what they're known for this time of year c
andy canes let's all give a big round of applause for candy cane number one liveing and color there it is and by December 24th we'll have made about 100,000 candy canes one by one just like you're watching right now wow he's Tik tok's very own willly Wonka on an app where the Only Rule is to keep things short and sweet these it catching videos have racked up millions of views that's actually a pretty good video Jerry Rowley is the candy making star and owner of Logan's candies his daughter Abby
The Mastermind behind the camera she came to me and said dad there's a social media out there called Tik Tok I thought we should get in and I didn't really know what that was we're going to start counting out our Stripes as always we're going to begin with stripe number one I never intended it to be this you know marketing thing or this like you know this huge thing I was just like oh I'll just post some videos and see what happens I think it was just something that people had never really seen
before it was like there's nothing else really like it now millions of folks follow Logan to watch Jerry pull fold and bend all sorts of candy canes by hand within about 72 hours we had over 25 million views and it was just unbelievable we couldn't believe it took off like that but just been amazing for the store we've SE a big growth in our shipping and even just people coming in we want to get him like a shirt or something that says like I'm Tik Tok bous next up the candy and himself eat this
what f is it oh my gosh I another that F well mostly just the Tik Tok videos were really fun to watch and the way that they made the candy I thought it'd be really fun to come try like homemade like candy cuz I've never had that before people definitely will recognize him that he thinks it's so funny and strange and I do too while the internet craze may be new Logan's candies has been perfecting its craft since 1933 we handmake all our candies here the oldfashioned way we have the original recip
recipes that we've been using for 87 years so we're just going to begin to pull this out here a little bit give it a little tug a little pull little stretch we get it just the right length and thickness we're going to give it a little twist and right before your very eyes we have created the candy cane by the time we're done we're going to fill up this entire table and we'll make about 400 candy canes this size out of the one batch Jerry developing a sweet tooth for the business at just 12 year
s old when the store's original owners hired him so I rolled candy canes that first year and baged candy canes and and then the next year I started learning to bend the candy canes by the time he was in college he was hooked so when an opportunity to buy the business came along Jerry and his then girlfriend Susie decided to take it on we actually uh started dating about uh 2 weeks before I bought the store we got married in 1985 and then we've just been running it together ever since we were jus
t babies running the candy store I was still in school I was only 16 so I would um get out of school early and come right to work the Logans the family that started the business trusted the rallies to carry on their sweet Legacy the wife was still working here when Jerry took over then they would say oh we're so thankful that you guys got the candy store because you're doing it like we did and they were just so thrilled 40 years later the rowes have preserved the store's traditions and with thei
r daughter Abby by their side that sense of family has stayed strong as well I have a lot of good memories just of being like a little kid kid in a candy store I would hide under the table over there and then I just come out to give samples I would like wait for my queue then once I started you know when I could see over the table that's when I started uh working on the table Logan's candies makes over 200 Treats but their candy canes Remain the most popular all year long there's St Patty's day
we do Shamrocks for Easter or Springtime that's a little bunny head candy cane basket do those for Mother's Day and Easter car of Davids for Hanukkah there's also one other candy cane they make that has a very special meaning we're making the Hanah cane here which is named after our first daughter Hannah after waiting nearly 10 years to have children the Rowley created a candy cane to celebrate the momentous occasion the burgundy and white they're beautiful and they're very special and we made t
hem the year she was born not knowing that she would only have a very short [Music] life oh my gosh Hannah she was amazing Hannah loved the candy store she just loved sharing the candy with [Music] everybody but when Hannah was just 3 years old she was diagnosed with leukemia it was always amazing to me that that she just had such faith and she would tell me mom if um if I were to die then I don't want you to spend all your days crying I want you to take care of Abby I want you to laugh she didn
't want me to be devastated cuz she knows where she was going and she wasn't going to be in any pain anymore so she was really amazing that way sadly passing away just 5 years later my heart will always be broken I'll be missing Hannah until the day we're reunited but I'm so so thankful that we had her the rowley's love for Hannah is apparent everywhere you look 26 years later we still make the candy canes and we still call them the Hanes and their love for this time of year shines through as we
ll I like having the Logans because it makes you excited that it's Christmas time and the fresh homemade candy canes and everything I drive in to get them every year for Christmas my whole family loves them we've continued to help other people have really wonderful family memories for the holidays we realize we're part of Christmas for everybody so many families coming in 20 30 years in a row watching the grandkids grow up the kids grow up it's just amazing and they just keep coming back to make
it a family tradition who else can say they do this who else can do this with their family it's those Traditions filled with love family and food of course that make the holidays all the more sweeter oh oh P there Craig Melvin here filling in for our Roker on this episode of Family Style and today well today we're talking talking all about one of the country's most popular deserts and a holiday staple we're talking about pie and as a a southerner and a pie lover pean pean here it's my favorite
not pecan pecan so this assignment was almost too good to be true from our Thanksgiving giving tables to our fourth of July barbecues to Christmas and the winter holidays pie is Central to so many of our celebrations homemade or baked at at wonderful shops like this one called Michelle's pies in Connecticut Americans sure have strong fillings for pie see what I did there but how did we become a nation of pie people join me as I slice into the significance of this iconic dessert and piece togethe
r how and why different pies are so important to communities across this country time to head out of Studio 1A and hit the road for a new kind of culinary Adventure follow me as I taste some of the most iconic Foods around the country and meet the families behind them together we're going to learn how a good meal has the power to connect us to to our past our future and each other yes pcan might be my favorite but this this is my second favorite I'm a huge fan of a good oldfashioned sweet potato
pie and I'm not alone for millions of black Americans making a sweet potato pie is a meaningful tradition this time of year and in Minneapolis one woman stopped selling her highly sought after sweet potato pie and with the help of her family started giving them away for free now through her nonprofit she is bringing Generations together to bake and then gift her tasty pies it's a recipe for spreading love and creating meaningful connections you could say they're baking the world a better place
here's to the joy of our Blackness our Beauty our energy our power yeah just being able to come together in unity onward that's Rose McGee the founder of the sweet potato Comfort do on a fall morning a group of women gathered at her home just outside Minneapolis I appreciate it young Britney right approaching me and saying Miss Miss Rose you really should teach us young women how to make sweet potato pie oh just take a little piece of the shell itself and just slide it in there and that'll pull
it right out a lot easier than trying to use a spoon cuz it's thicker passing a tradition from one generation to the next Mama Rose is really good at bringing people together making them feel welcome and having a sense of belonging and so I thought it'd be really cool on my birthday to bring a bunch of women together sharing experiences learning how to bake pies learning something from the African-American tradition each attendee will be making three pies to share with their Community one to kee
p one to gift to an elder and one to gift to someone younger than them once we got the first batch of sweet potatoes boiling I started exhaling when you peel always go to the tip and then it just pulls right off for Rose sweet potato pie is not just dessert it's a catalyst for connection one that she considers sacred it seems like it's all about the pie but really the pie just happens to be the sweet spot that brings people together I used to sell the pies years ago no idea that one day I would
feel compelled to give them away not to sell them but to give them away I started sweet potato Comfort pie in 20 4 not really realizing that that's what I was doing after the killing of young Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri and I was sitting there watching television I felt this calling I obeyed that calling and made about 30 pies packed them in my car and my son Adam drove down with me but what I discovered was people wanted to be heard and listened to they wanted to feel that um they were b
eing respected so I took that to heart and brought it back home back in miniapolis when George Floyd was killed Rose stayed up all night baking pies to take to the memorial site to help her own Community here and I didn't know what to do except make some pies and that's why I know it's it's not just about me it's bigger than that is anybody really going going to respond to that and people do the organization's mission is to strengthen and cultivate relationships with the solidarity and story sha
ring that is part of making and receiving the podie I'm not trying to over emotionalize anything but I will say it's something when people allow you to build purpose and allow you to see beauty within yourself the sweet potato pie we know today was inspired from West African cuisine and dates back centuries to get to the root of its Origins we must first talk about yams I'm Rossy nulo I'm the author of sweet land of liberty a history of America in 11 pies so a yam is an old world crop and a swee
t potato is a new world crop and so yams are really an important part of the West African diet where sweet potatoes they are grown kind of on this side of the world in the United States sweet potatoes grew abundantly in the South enslaved black Americans tended to these crops and cooked with them contributing to many of the sweet potato recipes we know today however credit to Black chefs and Cooks didn't come until the late 1800s there was Melinda Russell's a domestic cookbook and then Abby fer
what Mrs Fisher knows about old southern cooking and so these were two black authored cookbooks that included recipes for sweet potato and really were an opportunity for these black chefs and Cooks to reclaim their knowledge have the credit given to them when emancipation comes they continue to make sweet potato pie and this time they're making it for themselves their families and their communities so you're just going to put in a third of the way for those close to the sweet potato Comfort pie
it's what's in the batter that really truly matters Anette Pearson Edinger is a pastry chef and helps manage the kitchen at sweet potato Comfort pie gatherings I was at the first meeting in here in Rose's living room when I was growing up if there were some trauma in a family or some celebration in a family you went down the street with the pies in your hand to present to the family that was either in need or celebrating and communicate with the folks that are there she oh the P's are ready toda
y back in Rose's kitchen is one of those celebrations in honor of Britney's birthday what I appreciate about this we have been in responsive mode we try to respond to these crisis that happen across the country and locally so to do something more celebratory is very uplifting and very inspiring for us all it's a Sisterhood through these pies through Mama Rose we're able to celebrate each other Empower each other encourage each other and we're doing it in a way through Unity the future of sweet p
otato Comfort pie I believe is a good one everybody has this need of wanting to connect and when you're baking a pie you just you're going to connect the heart of the comfort pie connection is love and a commitment to greater good and of course always keeping their eyes on the pie when in doubt bring a bunch of black women into the kitchen and we'll figure it out coming up a family in Lancaster Pennsylvania whose ancestors helped invent a sticky dessert that's still being served up [Music] today
[Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he and welcome back to family style and another pie rich with history and a little sugar as well some say the origin of this pie known as Shoe Fly can be traced back to a cake specifically the Centennial cake it first appeared in Philadelphia Circa 1876 celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and while the exact origins of the shoe fly pie
are lost to time no matter how you slice it it is a true American [Music] original in the heart of Pennsylvania's bucolic Amish country lies a town with a name that sounds like a familiar adage buronan is nestled in laner County a lot of farming a lot of Agriculture and a lot of really good hardworking people just has a peaceful and calm feeling it just envelops too Bird in Hand isn't just the name of this small village it's also the namesake of a family-owned corporation that runs a group of lo
dges a campground and eateries John smucker runs the business under his wings the bird inand Bakery and Cafe best known for its shoe fly pie raised minight John and his wife Mna have deep roots in this neck of the woods my family story in Pennsylvania begins in 1752 when my immigrant ancestor Christian Schmucker immigrated from Switzerland and Germany came to America established the Farm Homestead here in lter county and I'm the eighth generation Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants who came
to the US from german-speaking countries in the 18th and 19th centuries mainly to escape religious persecution in Europe by the late 1700s it's estimated that these immigrants accounted for more than a third of Pennsylvania's population no that'd be the new farmer she's out there doing it John's ancestors along with countless others brought with them new types of Cuisine and helped invent that sticky dessert that's famous in this region shoe fly [Music] pie the origins of Sho pie are a little bi
t murky one historian traces it back to Centennial cake which was made in the 1800s as a celebration of Pennsylvania's Centennial and so that was a crustless version that then once it becomes placed in a crust to become more easily transportable that turns into sholy pie the smucker family has been serving up their family shoe fly pie to the public for more than 50 years and they've been baking it for much longer but what exactly is sholy pie I'd start with delicious the topping is different so
it's not so sweet Pecan pie with no pecans shoefly pie is a type of molasses pie it's really a product of Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine and it's distinguished by its inclusion of strel which is very classic to those types of European Cuisines on the frontier they had a limited amount of ingredients a limited amount of resources and so one of the products that they would have had was molasses and molasses was stable most sholy pies include molasses the smockers however do things a little differently
we do not use a molasses product for our shoe fly pie we gravitate towards a light table seup another unique feature of Shoe Fly pod their traditional ingredients don't require refrigeration making it a convenient treat for the many Amish residents in this part of the country that's Anna Mary SM or to those who knew and loved her gry my grandmother Anam Mary smucker was the one who I would say was the ultimate pie baker in our family I'm sure she picked up recipes from her mother who picked the
m up from her mother before that in a 1938 edition of National Geographic on the Pennsylvania Dutch gry was even featured with four of her kids including John's dad and a shoe fly pie John come comes from a long line of Bakers influenced by his grandparents and his parents my mother was a pie baker so she was a busy cook and a housekeeper and my father was out on the farm and doing different businesses and so she uh was busy in the kitchen taking care of the family in 1970 John's father Paul ope
ned the family's first restaurant there they started serving the family's signature pie to locals and tourists in the mid 80s JN opened another nest for Foodies Bird in Hand Bakery and Cafe just to keep up with the soaring demand for their baked goods pumpkin pie sholy pie and Cherry crumb pie ah I just love pies the pies here are all made from scratch including the ooey gooey wet bottom shoe fly using Smucker's recipe that's been passed down for generations and apparently this pie isn't just fo
r dessert I have it for breakfast breakfast lunch and dinner not necessarily every day what's delicious on the plate first needs to take shape and we like our sholy pies to be sweet and smooth there are two main components the goo and the crumbs the wet filling is made with hot water light table syrup light brown sugar baking soda and eggs it's stirred with a canoe paddle siiz kitchen tool so to us the goo is is one of the most important features of the pi that filling is poured into a homemade
pie crust the Pi's signature crumb topping is made with pastry flour light brown sugar cinnamon salt and shortening which is combined in a large mixer crumbs gow on top and then the sco is down below in a layer that's about a/ an inch thick when we bake it the crumbs work down through into the pie a bit and um help to create what I call that middle layer back when gry made her pies she didn't shoe the grandkids away she just let us dig in after about an hour in the oven the pies were cooled hove
red and carried right from the kitchen to the bakery while visitors to this Bakery Savor Unforgettable flavors and a pinch of the past for John and his family the pies are symbolic of so much more my grandmother would always say give good measure she was a very hospitable person I see pies as part of hospitality these folks are proudly carrying on a unique Pennsylvania Dutch tradition here in the land known as Bird in Hand coming up a New York City Baker's quest to bring back a long lost Christm
as time [Music] pie [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] pie today gone tomorrow that's what that's what seems to be the fate of a beloved bygone Christmas time pie it was popular for well a New York minute well I guess a few decades to be exact but today one Bakery in New York City is bringing back this long forgotten Chestnut ROM and Cherry creation called Nestle Road it's not your traditional of pumpkin
apple or or blueberry dessert but it is a treat that many older New Yorkers probably remember from childhood served up with a slice of Nostalgia and a memory of decadent New York our motto at PDS is damn fine pie for damn fine people because we're just so proud to be a New York business P has been a part of New York's culinary history the entire time and we just wanted to elevate it the best we could I'm Petra perz and I am the owner and head Baker of P's Pie Company P's pie named after Petra's
childhood nickname has been serving up damn fine pie since opening in New York City in 2014 we opened up the Tuesday before Thanksgiving we sold like 100 pies and then the next year we sold 1,000 pies this past Thanksgiving nearly a decade after opening petties sold 10,000 PS the Big Holiday Rush isn't new to Petra she grew up pulling all nighters before Thanksgiving in the name of pie Pi has been part of my life since I was born I was born into my parents' Bakery they have a bakery called Mom'
s Apple Pie Company in Virginia and I always spent my thanksgivings working at their shop they are still in business and they still do tremendous Thanksgiving business Petra inherited a love of baking from her dad my dad is really obsessive about quality of ingredients and that's something that I have learned from him to just be really focused on flavor and on like texture and balance in a pie Petra left the family pie business and moved to New York City to pursue a career in teaching it was at
the end of my first year of teaching that I met my husband Robert seemingly Against All Odds it was poker that brought Petra back to pie he interestingly enough was playing poker professionally at the time he wanted a place to invest his poker money and so I sort of half jokingly asked him if he wanted to open a Pie Bakery with me Robert didn't call her Bluff and he said yes we've been dating a few weeks at the time and we spent the next 3 years planning it pey's menu offers the classics like ap
ple banana cream key lime and also a beloved bygone pie the couple's love of culinary history led to Nestle Road's discovery and return one of the things that Robert and I used to do as we were planning our business was we would look at the New York Public Libraries menu database which is really fun and one pie that we kept seeing over and over that we had never heard of and never tried and weren't sure how to pronounce was Nestle Road pie it was on a lot of sort of mid-century menus from the 19
40s through the 1960s this elusive pie peaked Petra's interest stumbling across Nestle Road on these old menus was sort of like uh discovering a fossil or something Petra saw this as a chance to bring back a piece of decadent New York her curiosity inspired a sweet Revival Nestle Road wasn't always a pie it actually started as a frozen custard dessert in sort of the Victorian ages a very decadent thing to have a frozen dessert before you know Refrigeration was widely available it was like the mo
st fancy dessert you could imagine first off it was named after a Russian Diplomat by his private French chef not to mention its luxurious ingredients of chestnuts and lur years later the Big Apple heavily influenced the evolution of this decadent dessert it went from a pudding mold to a pie crust it sort of transformed in New York City in around the 1940s by this woman named cortens Spire baking the pies from her Upper West Side Brownstone the pie quickly gained popularity she made pies for lik
e all of the fancy New York City restaurants all the steakhouses and all the fancy Fish seafood restaurants the pie was a midcentury Marvel as demand grew and the pie became a New York City Diner and sweet shop staple many Renditions no longer included chestnuts by the mid-60s it all but faded into Oblivion Nestle road is one of Petey's holiday season offerings but the supply is limited because it's so labor intensive we can only make 80 over the course of the week in creating her Nestle Road pi
e recipe Petra sought to honor the origins of the dessert I wanted to bring that Chestnut uh part of the flavor profile and bring it sort of front and center my recipe is almost sort of a mashup of the sort of Hortense Spire 1940s era and the New York diner 1960s era all of pey's Pies start with the same crust my crust is based on my dad's recipe it pushes the limits with one ingredient my crust recipe has like a 8 to9 ratio of butter to flour which is really high next up preparing the the chest
nuts for roasting I puree the chestnuts with sugar and with rum and that is sort of the Bas note flavor of the whole pie the fillings light delicate texture is achieved using gelatin it's sort of like a a chiffon or like a fluffy custard kind of pie the filling is then chill we did like a Swiss mering the mering is folded into the f [Music] time to top with ganache and of course the final step a cherry on top they're actually sour cherries when I hear that somebody um who hasn't tried Nestle Roa
d pie since they since the 1960s tried my Nestle Road pie and loved it and just got a sense of nostalgia out of it it really sort of brings a a whole other layer of meaning into into the work that I do outside of the bakery petrum and Robert are raising three little pie people with a fourth on the way my kids are really into pie they really love to eat pies as for if their kids will share a slice of the shop one day who knows if they'll want to continue the pie business I look forward to passing
on everything that I know just like my parents did and um and seeing if they're [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] interested [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] for most Americans it seems that there's always room for pie and the significance of that slice can adapt to circumstances places and people through pie it seems we can more deeply understand not just our country's history but our own sweetened memories New York City is home to so many iconic foods bu
t when the city that never sleeps wakes up for breakfast they want a bagel with a cream cheese shmear piled Highwood locks there's no other city that makes a bagel like a New York City Bagel I have not had good bagels in any other city I came out the wound eating bagels it's time to head out of Studio 1A and hit hit the road for a new kind of culinary Adventure follow me as I taste some of the most iconic Foods around the country and meet the families behind them together we're going to learn ho
w a good meal has the power to connect us to our past our future and each [Music] other if New York's known for anything it's its bagels and we got them all everything Bagels rainbow Bagels pumpkin Bagels croissant bagels and of course you can't have them without a shmear while the bagel first came from Poland many food historians say it's pairing with salmon and cream cheese originated right here in the Big Apple in this town few specialty food shops are as beloved and as historic as Russ and D
aughters I've been waiting in line probably 15 20 minutes but it's definitely worth it I like the contrast of the flavor it's like a nice little bagel with a with salty lcks they about the salmon and cream cheese together like I try to make it at home but it's nothing compared to R and daughters they've been serving premium smoked fish to Hungry New Yorkers and folks from around the world for over 100 years just a few blocks from the store is the Russ and Daughters Cafe hi Al hey how are you wel
come to Russ daughters Cafe nice to see you great to have you here thanks for having us this is beautiful thank you Nikki R betterman and Josh Russ Tupper are the grandchildren of the original daughters these cousins are fourth generation owners carrying on their family's culinary Legacy so this is Russ and Daughters this is our great-grandfather Joel Russ who started the business his wife Bella and his three daughters um we Josh and I have the same grandmother an she was the youngest of the thr
ee was it unusual at that time for because you usually you see so and so and Sons but to see Russ and Daughters very unusual but I mean honestly if he had had Sons it probably would have been Russ and Son Well thank goodness he did we like to think of him as a feminist but he was a good businessman Joel Russ immigrated from Poland in 1907 and he started just standing on the streets of the low East Side selling schal hering out of a barrel and a family could feed itself for two nights with one fi
sh in 1914 he opened his first brick and mortar shop J Russ National appetizing Joel and his wife had three daughters ptie Ida and Anne when they turned 11 each daughter began working with their dad what was their relationship like with him I because uh he's your dad but he's also your boss your boss yeah and I think he cared more about being the boss and the shopkeeper he was a new immigrant to this country who was was just trying to survive and make a place for his family and that was his focu
s and he saw his children as as you know cheap labor the sisters grew up learning all aspects of the business in 1935 Hattie Ida and an became Joel's Partners the shop was renamed Russ and Daughters making it the first in America to bear and daughters in its title when your great-grandfather decided to to start Russ and Daughters why the Lower East Side after Ellis Island this was the starting off point for the majority of poor Jewish immigrants this is where they landed and they got their start
and so he was just feeding basic food to other poor immigrants like himself at the turn of the century this neighborhood was one of the most densely populated places on the planet many immigrants from all around the world world lived in overcrowded tenement buildings the conditions having a profound impact on their diets one of the things about Lower East Side Jewish food is that a lot of food wasn't made at home when you don't have running water or when you don't have electric or gas stoves it
's really hard to do very much cooking and so for for women who are responsible for feeding their families they had to get food from push carts from restaurants from bakeries Joel Russ was one of many vendors catering to this new population I've I've always been curious how did it come about or from what you've heard that somebody thought hey you know here's this round bread we'll put some fish on it but oh by the way before we do let's put some cream cheese some Dairy on it yeah first of all Ro
ss and daughters is the torch bearer of what's called appetizing and this is a food tradition born here in New York and it's the sister food tradition to delicatess both of which come up through the Jewish kosher dietary rules you have to separate fish and dairy from meat so a delicatessan strictly speaking is for meat the appetizing store is where you go for fish and dairy things like Herring smoke fish when we say bagel and locks most people are you know we're referring to a smoke salmon but t
he original Bagel mocks was not with smoke salmon technically locks or belly locks is salmon cured in salt which preserves fish without Refrigeration there's no smoking involved and it's incredibly salty so it pairs perfectly with Tangy cream cheese but who is the first person to put locks on a bagel so no one really knows how Bagels locks and cream cheese all came together we know that Bagels come from Eastern Europe we know that locks kind of comes basically from Nova Scotia kind of we know th
at cream cheese is an American food but what we know is that these things come together as part of a compromise between different generations of American Jews Jewish law prohibits cooking with most heat sources on the Sabbath so the combo of bagels and locks created a filling meal for observant Jews to enjoy on the day of rest it's good for a family but you or your daughter-in-law didn't have to be spending the the previous day cooking as one of the country's oldest appetizing stores Russ and Da
ughters has been serving kosher meals for generations and the weekends are still their busiest days I can't think really of anything that's more New York than locks and bagels I agree I think that this is a food that came up through the Eastern European Jewish immigrants to New York but now it's transformed and just become New York food it belongs to all New [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Yorkers [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Mu
sic] [Applause] [Music] in the United States women own less than 20% of all businesses at the iconic Russ and Daughters co-owner Nikki Russ fetman is building on the legacy of her grandmother and great aunts growing up you you follow the footsteps of of strong women who may not have chosen this but took it on and obviously made it really successful what is it like for you following in those footstones it's a tremendous feeling to be now the and great-granddaughter Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was
a good customer of ours her family came from the Lori side and she once said that before she knew the word feminist when she looked up at the sign Russ and daughter she understood that women could have an impact your family's business Russ and Daughters has survived two world wars a depression you here in the shadow of the World Trade Center yes why has this place been able to not just survive but Thrive I think because in each generation there has been someone who wanted to do this this is foo
d that people turn to for comfort in hard times and during the pandemic we saw that you know people were shipping Russ and Daughters all over the country to their loved ones because they couldn't be together and so sending you know bagels and locks and bobka say you know I love you I miss you here let me feed you having a shmear over Zoom oh there was a lot of that okay so you can get smoked fish pretty much everywhere these days but not quite like this the salmon sold at Russ and Daughters is p
rized for its high fat content from the milder gaspay Nova to the smokier Scottish and this Gourmet fish is all sliced by hand when you hold it up I mean it's it's almost translucent yeah I think we should show you how we get it that then yeah me and a sharp utensil what could possibly go wrong it takes up to 6 months of training to master the slicing techniqu here so Al I hear you have some knife skills well I've been in a fight or two but that's probably nothing like yours how how long have yo
u been slicing s I've been at the store for 20 years wow um so I've been slicing for a while all right so so I watch people slice and I I'm amazed at at how patient because it seems like that's part of the the skill the reality is when you know how to slice it is one of the most relaxing things you can do very Zen very Zen o meditative right the trick is don't look anywhere on the fish you have to really feel the fish be the fish be the fish which is a very difficult concept to train someone goo
d um and particularly the first couple slices are don't be upset okay if they don't look great the idea is to make a consistently thick slice you making faces of Me no I'm just watching you not watch the fish all right okay here we go be the fish not looking you should you should look I you got a sharp knife in your hand Al and you can see that as you change the angle of the knife it changes the thickness yeah right so now that's atically more than you think that's more than oh my gosh that's a
very thick call those chilas chilas yeah chops ah in Spanish I was gonna say that sound that sound yish did not sound yish to me does the way you cut it affect the taste of it or the texture of it the texture which affects the experience of the salmon it's almost like you're eating the essence of salmon not salmon it's very delicate it's a very appealing texture and and mouth feel yeah the thinner Josh thanks so much nice meeting you such a pleasure to have you ah smoke them if you got them up n
ext how fresh salmon gets turned into lcks [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1 [Music] [Applause] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he [Applause] [Music] I'm here at the acne Smoked Fish Factory now there is something fishy going on in there and you better believe I'm going to find out what it is the folks at acne process smoke and pack nearly 8 million pounds of fish every year they sell to eateries all over the country including Russ and Daughters it smells of sm
oke and it smells of fish that's the way it's supposed to be smells like New York City yes all right so as you know in any food food plant food safety is of Paramount importance I see you got your boots on here I just happen to be wearing these [Music] awesome [Music] I've walk you through the process of how salmon turns into smoke salmon Adam caslo is the fourth generation owner of acne smoked fish his great-grandfather Harry Brownstein started selling fish after immigrating from Russia to Broo
klyn where he started in the smoke fish business in the early 19 100 in 1906 to be exact out of a push card out of a a a a hor drawn wagon wow he would go around buying fish from different smok houses throughout Brooklyn and Queens and had himself the sales route you know he worked close to 45 years I mean his dream was to open up his own Smokehouse and it took him 45 years to finally achieve that W Adam now runs a massive smoked fish Empire supplying many of New York City's popular Bak shops fr
om H&H to Essa Bagel Acme also selling to National Grocers like Trader Joe's at the end of the day it's all about the fish we bring in fish from all over the world uhhuh smoked salmon is probably the most popular thing that we make and our salmon come from different places Norway Scotland Chile and Alaska it can take up to 5 days to make smoke salmon every order is made to the buyer's tastes from the type of salmon to the curing method the first step cutting a whole fish into fillets whoa yeah s
o this is a 12 kilo whole salmon that I caught over here in Long Island Sound no I'm just kidding this is an Atlantic salmon it's farm farm raised we use Atlantic salmon because it has the most fat and fat equal lose flavor when making smoke smoked salmon right so what are you cutting out the like the backbone there yeah this is your Bo uh-huh carving into a fish this size requires expert hands after the fish is filleted it's preserved with salt the fish is then treated with a wet brine or a dry
cure okay so let's dry dry cheer some some sandon good first thing we're going to get it onto the wrap okay so see if you can pick up this salmon grab it by the by the the tail okay grab with your other hand and we're going to lay it onto this the the screen okay perfect great step two we're going to grab a handful of [Music] salt so it's just a thin layer yep right along the top of the dorsal like kind of down the center line I suppose and we'll give it a nice love love tap that's it that's it
this fish is rather large so traditionally we would probably Dr wet R this this fish but for smaller fish the the dry cure lasts about 24 hours okay that's a huge fish right after curing the filets are cold smoked for up to 20 hours this process imparts a subtle Smoky flavor let me show you all the smoker works so these are a collection of that wood chip blend that we were talking about earlier there are different ways to smoke fish fillets hot smoking results in flaky opaque filets unlike trad
itional locks smoked salmon is cold smoked below 85° this helps the fish retain its silky t texture and makes it perfect for slicing ready to help me get this bad boy into the BET all right all right hey now let's close her up woo shut her down after the smoker the fish is cooled then packed for shipping what would your great grandfather say if he could see all of this I think he'd be amazed of how difficult it was for him to achieve his dream now his descendants have been able to build upon tha
t dream and build us into one of the preeminent smokers in the US up next a vegan Deli taking on tradition with plant-based locks and cashew cream cheese oh you don't want to miss [Music] [Applause] this [Music] [Applause] [Music] he hey he [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] he back on the Lower East Side two sisters inspired by their Jewish Heritage are on a mission to make the food they loved growing up in a more sustainable way ladies nice to meet you nice to meet want to show me around p
lease come on lead away Erica and Sarah kerski are the co-owners of Orchard grocer an entirely vegan market inspired by Classic delicates this is our they want to make the vegan lifestyle easier for all right after college they opened their first business a shoe store called mooes we opened our vegan shoe store 20 years ago how are they they're comfortable about 5 years ago we decided that we were going to update it by adding our vegan grocer basically because it seemed like that's what our cust
omers want um after asking us what our shoes were made of probably where should I go eat was um the second most common question so we decided to create an experience where they could just go eat next door growing up in Queens the sister's Jewish culture and food were closely linked they had 10 Jewish delies in their neighborhood alone probably every Sunday a tradition in our family dozen bagels um at the bagel store a dozen always meant 15 I don't know why that was but and with the cream cheese
and locks and that was just how we spent our Sundays both sisters became vegan as teenagers but felt they lost a piece of their Roots by giving up certain foods I think our parents were supportive of our changes to the vegan lifestyle we grew up in a very culturally Jewish household so all of our Traditions were just based around food today a lot of folks are going vegan for a variety of reasons from reported health benefits to concerns over Animal Welfare for the sisters it's also a matter of g
lobal importance we're watching climate change happen right now and I think that's causing a lot of people to think twice about what they're eating and how they are contributing so it makes sense to us that it is becoming so mainstream in 2017 Sarah and Erica saw not just an opportunity to satisfy a growing Market but to pay homage to their Jewish roots we wanted to have a a good sandwich selection that really epitomizes like New York deli food so obviously a bagel and MOX was going to be there
Orchard grer sells a variety of vegan sandwiches including reubin and tuna melts but the sisters are most passionate about serving up a sense of nostalgia people are so worried about giving things up so I think just creating those Alternatives and just something that people are familiar with and gives them that feeling of home yeah like we haven't had to give up our Sunday tradition of um bagels and locks to help make their Unique Deli a reality the sisters hired vegan Chef Nora Vargas Nora shar
es a passion for plant-based Foods she also knows how to turn carrots into salty locks how did you come up I mean you have to think okay what can mimic a smoked salmon so how did you was it look like like well the only orange vegetable out there other than a sweet potato is Carrot we know the texture that we need to go for we know the flavor that we want to go for so we started with the the color and then we just kind of built it from there okay so let's get started I'm I'm really fascinated abo
ut all right I'm excited so we have prepared what do we have maybe 10 lbs of carrots here for you wow these are huge these would have been huge carrots seriously yeah like the size of my forearm but you you have you have sliced them very thin on a mandolin yes yeah exactly all right so we're all gloved up and we are going to the next step in this process is to uh apply our rub to our so in here we have a mixture of sugar salt and the rest I can't tell you about oh it's a secret kind of thing so
this this would be kind of like the brine that you would use the dry brine that you would use on fish exactly except it's going on vegetables we got our inspiration for a lot of different components of this recipe from the way that you would actually prepare fish if we were preparing fish and not carrots right coat everything H interesting oh no don't smell it don't don't figure out the secret just by smelling it okay now because if I figure it out she's going to have to kill me so I'm just goin
g to start rubbing just mushing everything in there once we get everything coated we would let this sit for 3 to 6 hours probably okay great so I think we've I think we nailed it okay in here is another secret ingredient definitely but I can tell here at Orchard I'll tell you a little bit okay so it's a combination of olive oil and aquafaba aaaba yeah are you familiar with that ingredient I don't know you know when you're opening up a can of beans and you got to drain them yes the stuff that you
drain out that's Aqua faab aquafaba Bean water it's Bean Bean Juice yes exactly okay yeah so I'm going to pour and then you can kind of do the same process that we did before just squish it all in there okay yeah perfect after we had let our carrots sit for 3 to 6 hours um we toss them in the oven so they bake we like to call it cold smoking just to sound like classy like the process of making smokes in exactly yeah that does look very much like smokes in and what would a bagel and locks be wit
hout the cream cheese this vegan spread is made with raw cashews salt some secret spices and coconut oil all Blended together with soft tofu should we make a bagel sure let's do [Music] it cheers cheers this is a really terrific idea thank you for opening my eyes oh thank you so much I appreciate it that is fantastic a great way to finish things up I mean we we've seen the history we gone to the past we were in the present and you have brought us the locks and bagels of the future a bagel with c
ream cheese and smoked salmon is a uniquely American combination born from Jewish roots transformed by local ingredients and carried on by new generations this breakfast tradition has truly stood the test of time when it comes to food in New York City [Music] [Applause] [Music] the hills are alive with the sights and smells and tastes ah come on it's a food show now nothing says Autumn quite like apple whether it's a trip to an orchard like this a warm slice of apple pie or cheering with cider b
ut when did apples become the apple of America's eye I left the Big Apple and I'm here in Massachusetts where America's history with apples actually began so today we are going to get to the core of how apples became a homegrown hero how do you like Dem [Music] apples time to head out of Studio 1A and hit the road for a new kind of culinary Adventure follow me as I taste some of the most iconic Foods around the country and meet the families behind them together we're going to learn how a good me
al has the power to connect us to our past our future and each other my family and I have been coming here to Hilltop orchards in Massachusetts for the past 20 years that's right in fact you'd be hardpressed to find a better fall family activity than apple picking and especially the apple cider donuts and of course what also pairs well with a trip to Orchards cider and they make a lot of it here at Hilltop oh and did I mention the [Music] donuts meet David and Sarah Martell High School sweethear
ts who reconnected in their 30s together they run Hilltop Orchards we're definitely an apple orchard but we're also wiy and a cidery so we're a triple threat today David handles the operations of the Orchard cidery and Winery with Sarah focusing on guest experience the Orchard's historic cidermill where David played as a kid was renovated in 1997 now they call it home I started coming to this Orchard when I was about 6 years old my father worked here then David left the burkers and worked in con
struction for several years when he decided to return home he really went back to his roots taking a part-time job at Hilltop I've been in the orchard business for about 12 years now David's the third generation in his family to work on the 100 something year old orchard did you ever think that you would be running the orchard someday n in a million years I quickly fell in love with these apple trees and decided that's what I'm going to do diving in and learning about all the different apples an
d the history of apples and that history is pretty sweet I like to think of myself as an apple nerd my name is Amy Traverso and I'm the senior food editor at Yankee Magazine and the author of the Apple lovers cookbook crab apples are the only variety indigenous to North America sweet apples were introduced to America by early colonists in the 1600s sweet apples have their origins in this area of western China sort of the border between Kazakhstan and kyrgystan called the tan mountain range those
apple seeds came over with the Jamestown Expedition and trees were planted at Plymouth but in the early days colonists weren't making pies and Tarts most apples grown in America at that time were more likely to be turned into cider than eaten apples played a very important role when there was people coming from England as they say on the boat they would make hard cider because that cider would last where water might spoil and someone would get sick this trend continued Stateside by 1775 10% of
all New England Farms had a Cider Mill today I am at BF Clyde Cider Mill in Old Mystic Connecticut meet Amy Harrison and her daughter Sarah monk fifth and sixth generation owners of CES we are the last original steampowered C in the United States back in you know the 1800s early 1900s everybody had a cyer mill that had a farm we used the the same press it's the same Mill and not many people get to go to work and put their hands on a lever and say you know what my great great-grandfather did this
same thing back in 1898 cider was really important to early America because it was relatively easy to make people had apples in abundance Thomas Jefferson and John Adams famously loved it drank it every day children drank it because it was low in alcohol but it was often safer than water water could often be contaminated at that time these days Americans don't drink as much cider as the founding fathers two things happened to kind of bring the Apple to its knees we had immigration from Germany
and Czechoslovakia which were beer growing regions beer took over as the major American drinks another reason behind cider's decline prohibition apples were very strongly associated with Cider at the time they were really seen as a source of alcohol my great great grandmother was arrested twice never convicted but arrested twice for um boot legging in the 1930s Apple's sinful image was reborn as shipping methods improved sweet apples from Washington State could be transported all over the countr
y and the industry grew apples then had to be remarketed as just a dessert thing as something you bake with or eat fresh from your hand and so apples they went through this rebranding and emerged as this sort of innocent sweet fruit that wasn't going to get you drunk or do anything naughty it was just going to make a nice pie now even hard cider is making a comeback due in large part to the craft beer boom in the late as gluten is having a moment so people are shying away from a lot of beers cid
er is fermented apples and that's it where a lot of other beverages or mixed drinks or anything of that nature could have a lot of preservatives and different things added to them today Americans are drinking 10 times more cider than a decade ago and that's meant big business for Hilltop most of our guests are cider enthusiasts that are relatively new to The Cider craves Hilltop making around 1,500 gallons daily and I got a chance to give it a try or a press they say time to make the donuts it's
time to make the cider so here's some gloves I see you brought your boots yeah I did the process starts with freshly picked apples that are washed thoroughly next up culling as Benjamin Franklin once said the rotten apple spoils His companion they're sorting through what's coming down the conveyor this Apple has some dings and bumps the good apples are sent to the grinding wheel and they will get ground up to an applesauce consistency now it's my turn to prepare the ground around apples for [Mu
sic] pressing so it's like an apple sludge diaper that's it then the apples get pressed down to the last drop that's 2,000 lb of pressure per square inch up until this point the process for sweet and hard cider is the same excellent and nobody got hurt sweet cider would be bottled at this stage for Hard Cider the fermentation process begins so sweet cider becomes more popular once we can refrigerate apple juice to prevent it from fermenting in the mid 20th century cider stands and apple picking
became an American Pastime a tradition my family's enjoyed for more than 20 years each [Music] [Applause] fall [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1 [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] there's just something about apple picking that inspires my best dad jokes what Apple sayings have you heard there's a lot of um Insider sayings okay I I got one for you okay okay they say the family that plays together stays together the family that picks together sticks together there you go as far as my
kids are concerned my jokes are as much a part of our annual tradition as the apples themselves it's like oh Dad my family's been coming to Hilltop for more than 20 years even before my two youngest were born I don't know if it's something about the season when apples ripen and it's starting to get get cooler and you're thinking about like Comforts of home and coziness people have very intense emotional connections with apples Agri tourism in the United States started becoming popular during the
Industrial Revolution when City dwellers looked to nature for recreation labor shortages during and after World War II saw Farmers calling for volunteers to help pick crops by the 1960s enterprising Farmers recognized America's love for apples in the fall the you pick tradition became a profitable Pastime at Orchards all across the country is there a right way or and a wrong way to pick an apple spoiler alert there is a wrong way the problem with twisting and pulling the apple is that if it is
not ripe you're going to also get next year's Apple can you show me I can so this is an apple that I know is not ready to pick yet okay so if we were to lift up on this uhhuh if it was ripe it would come free right so it did not come free okay right next to it is some Macintosh apples and if you go ahead and lift up on one at a kind of at an angle into the sky it comes it comes free okay so that means that it's ripe okay and the other thing is well that's the worst thing you can do when you're p
icking an Apple so we we treat these like eggs and we place them in the Bucket Place them in the bucket there's sometimes little brown spots on them that's from fingers oh so the worst thing that you can do to somebody with a Farmstand or or a fruit grower is grab their apples and start squeezing them I do like the honey crisp honey crisp is I was Gala but I've moved to the honey crisp with an empty nest I thought this year's Roker family trip was going to look pretty different but then I heard
from my boy at College Nick was very adamant about okay are you going to come pick me up so I can go Apple pick cuz I thought this will be the first year we don't have anybody to Apple pick with much to my delight the family that picks together does stick [Music] together [Applause] [Music] he [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] 1 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I only have pies for you American Pie is certainly an American icon and in Sou
thern California one local family's pies have achieved allamerican status and this holiday season they're gearing up to make over 50,000 of these each week I love apple pie every time I atat apple pie I think man my mom just hit it out of the park I'm Dave's mothers I'm Tim's mothers and our mother started the Julian piie company in 1986 from a young age Liz Smothers developed a passion and a knack for baking she often tells the story of standing on a milk crate next to her mom I was probably fo
ur or five years old I would crawl up upon a box and take the little leftover pieces of dough and put them in a jar lid I would put the little apple in my jar lid and cover it and she would bake it in the oven just along with hers and I would eat it I would say that if I had not had that experience I would never be in the pie business in the early 80s the Smothers family moved to Julian California a picturesque Mountain town near San Diego funds were tight so my mom uh ended up taking odd jobs w
hen we moved here I had to go to work the only place that a job was available was in a bakery and u i I tell you after I started working with pie making that old love just came right back that love was Mutual lizza's pies were in high demand at the local bakeries where she worked quickly gaining a loyal following she had built up a reputation there were stories that they would go and and go I want one of her pies and point at my mom a historic gold mining town Julian thrives thanks to agricultur
e namely it's awardwinning apples once we came out here to Julian and uh she saw the opportunity she just never looked back Wild Horses couldn't have stopped me honestly I was not thinking of how much money can I make I just was dying to make a a good pie like my mother made 2 years after moving to Julian Liz opened her own shop the Julian Pie Company she was 50 years old prove it it's never too late to embark on a dream my mom baked 120 pies and she sold out the first day it was a was a great g
rand opening in this shop there's an apple pie for everyone it's the apple crunch with vanilla ice cream it's not too sweet and it's really fresh this is the most amazing pie I have ever had in my life from Cherry Apple to Apple rhar today Julian has 15 unique apple pie varieties in rotation thank you so much the most popular seller is the Dutch Apple my mom's kind of joke was that that's the pie that pays our rent today the busy Bakers here make up to 10,000 pies a day pie production beginning
around 3:00 a.m. it's no surpris that fall is their busiest season Thanksgiving is the Super Bowl and uh and Christmas is like another Super Bowl the pies are primarily made by hand starting off with four ingredients pie crust is just flour water shortening salt it's it it's the way you handle the dough so you get a nice short bread crust rather than a chewy crust the brothers say their mom had a gift for knowing just when to stop kneading to make it perfect if you don't get the dough right you
might as well not have the business Miguel's worked with my mom he knows exactly the precise measurements of how to do things we add a few hundred lbs of flour very ice cold water the twin arm mixer Blends the dough that's what I think of his grandma's hand the 400 lb batch of dough heads to the extruder where it's cut into individual portions so a 9.2 o Puck falls into a pie shell smashes the dough into a perfect shape then they go into our freezers and we use them as needed next up assembling
the pies apples are peeled sliced then spiced cinnamon sugar and salt this is all my mom's original recipe they'll be a little bit of butter every time that dumps I just get giddy I'm like yes we hit out of the park so these pies have all been packed they're nice and round kind of like a mushroom Patty's going to begin lifting which is separating the uh the crust from the pie tin if you don't do this St right here that pie will bubble over in the oven my mom was a queen flutter the pies are brus
hed with an apple cider egg wash before baking then they're cooled boxed and ready to be shipped Julian's pies are sold in hundreds of stores including big grocery chains like Albertson's as well as Mom and Pop shops throughout s San Diego my name is Sierra Smothers I'm Liz Smothers granddaughter I grew up baking pies with my grandma this job was actually my first job in high school these days Sierra pitches in wherever she's needed including driving the delivery truck I said Sierra do you want
to spend the day with your dad and help me deliver pies and she of course jumped at the opportunity so we had a whole day together delivering Pi everybody loved it Julian now has two locations employing almost 70 people so many admire their company's founder is the best know everything I do is very how would Liz want it want it done Liz's perfectionism and attention to detail is really what's brought this company to the magnitude that it is and if we don't carry that on then what are we doing Li
z passed away peacefully surrounded by family in May but her Legacy lives on through the Beloved recipes her family works hard to preserve I just hope that she's looking down and whatever that we do we we have her in our hearts and uh that she's proud Al this is where you get choked up now it's very uh it's very special really miss her um she left a a huge Legacy with big shoes to fill as for the future of Julian the Smothers continue to welcome customers old and new with open arms come again sw
eetie pie that's my mom coming up next a North Carolina family is giving Candy Apples a glow up with their colorful and creative creations [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1 how do you make apples even sweeter well you dip them in candy of course candy apples have long been associated with boardwalks and state fairs but there's one entrepreneur in North Carolina who's taking this traditional treat to a whole new level with
a colorful Twist on the classic [Music] coating my name is Kim battle and this is my husband Travis Battle and we are the owners of candy app thank I would describe Candy Apples by K as the world's first Hard Candy Candy Apple shop we specialize in the hard candy apple that started out with the traditional Carnival treat and then we've expanded that to different colors different flavors according to most historians American Style candy apples were invented in New Jersey in the early 1900 they're
known for that signature cinnamon flavored red shell until now I like the uh tropical punch my favorite flavor is Turtle I would certainly say that the variety makes them special for Kim and Travis this treat has an especially sweet history candy apples have always been a favorite my husband used to bring them to me when we were dating and when I threw his surprise 40th birthday party I wanted him to have gold Candy Apples as a favor we found someone to make them and then she encouraged me you
know you can make these yourself you could do this yourself wanting to enjoy Candy Apples year round Kim began developing unique candy recipes at home her kids her first taste testers eventually it picked up and neighbors and friends would say oh I would buy some from from you if you have some and I thought let me start an Instagram page and see how many people are interested in candy apples at this point I'm working full-time still uh as an accountant and on the weekends I would start doing mar
kets to offer these candy apples when Kim got laid off she saw an opportunity to pursue her Dream full time there's never been a storefront that just focused on Candy Apples and you love going in a cupcake shop and you're like oo all the flavors and the beauty of having the case displayed of all these treats and I thought that would be so yum to have the same thing but just in Candy Apples Candy Apples by K officially opened in April 2019 a line of eager patrons stretched down the sidewalk on op
ening day any dream of hers I'm definitely going to support it's going to come my dream as well so we took off with it today Kim and her team make over 40 different flavors and rotate their offerings each week the process starts of course with fresh apples that Travis picks up from local farmers markets each weekend those are pretty in our opinion The Granny Smith apple is the best apple to use that tart hard crisp apple is perfect against sweet candy the apples are washed thoroughly in vinegar
and hot water to remove that waxy coating and it creates a smooth surface for the candy to be applied to in the candy apple world this is a dirty apple and this is a clean Apple the apples need to dry for 24 hours or else the candy coating won't stick properly and this might just be my opin I but the more I've dipped I feel like covering the Apple all the way to the stick is ideal for presentation Kim's candy starts with a base of sugar corn syrup and water heated to 300° then flavor extracts ar
e added she's experimented with dozens over the years including blue raspberry sour watermelon and panina Cola and while we couldn't get her to divulge exactly how she gets those eye popping colors Kim did reveal one Secret making sure that you're using bright colors and that your candy is not transparent would also be a key to making sure that you have a beautiful Apple many apples get a little extra love with candy pieces or nuts the store now offering a variety of dip treats including candied
grapes and chocolate dipped fruit but the classics are always on standby our family favorites are definitely still the carnival the turtle which is caramel milk chocolate and peans is also a huge favor it's one that we can slice and share with everyone and they really do mean everyone we have five kids ranging uh ages 2 to 22 they all contribute something different even to the family business and they're very familiar with Candy Apples they're so used to seeing them that I think the 5-year-old'
s first word was Apple it was Apple Elena the couple's oldest works at the shop she also handles their social media to help boost business this is carrot cake I feel it's really bought her out of her shell I mean she was an introvert and very quiet but this has really blossomed her into being a lot more outgoing and engaging in conversation with customers the younger kids continue to taste test while Travis pitches in where needed he works full-time but still in the evenings at night he's washin
g apples he's stocking the store he's getting all our supplies I think often like I don't think I could have done this with anybody else but him Kim owing a large part of her success to a generation that came before our moms played a huge role as well Travis's mom was so precise in developing a process and a lot of the ways that we dip and a lot of our little tricks and secrets came from from her and then my mom working the store um she was actually washing apples as well she's grateful they wer
e able to enjoy her success early on last year last April uh my mother-in-law passed away and after losing her that was very traumatic and hurtful for our family she was the matriarch of the family and so 2 weeks later my mom passed and we weren't expecting that of you know either situation we are definitely keeping them a daily part of our Lives remembering everything that they've taught us and instilled in us um knowing how uh tickle they were about how far the business had come I don't think
there's a day that goes by that we don't talk about them or think about them a lot of times when we're doing things we can kind of feel their peaceful spirit with us and encouraging us and pushing us and without that I don't know that we could continue you know and just like their mothers Kim and Travis are passing down many lessons to their children I believe some of the things that the kids have learned by watching Kim run the business is resilience patience love and passion you know a great j
ob managing [Music] B apples are a true American Icon at their core they're a shining example of innovation and versatility and their place in US history is one of patriotism and pride but most of all they Foster a sense of [Music] togetherness it is truly The Most Wonderful Time of the Year spending time with family friends and the people we love and how do you show that love why with some sweet treats of [Music] course sweets are great you really can't say no to sweets are holiday revolve arou
nd food everything is food all the good food the sweets the cookies the treats the candy the cakes the pies I could go on for a long time time to head out of Studio 1A and hit the road for a new kind of culinary Adventure follow me as I taste some of the most iconic Foods around the country and meet the families behind them together we're going to learn how a good meal has the power to connect us to our our past our future and each other one of my favorite holiday traditions is coming to see thi
s fabulous Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and folks from all around the country love doing it too and speaking of from all around the country there's a baker in Brooklyn who's bringing a little taste of Mexico to everyone who wants [Applause] it Don Paco Lopez Panaderia has been serving up Fresh Mexican pastries for 30 years and its customers have been lining up for just as long I've been coming here all since they open they're very well known in the neighborhood very nice well I've been a cu
stomer since I was about 5 years old I've been coming to dako since I was very small maybe like 3 or 4 years old and now I teach across the street so I come every morning before work so they're going to treat you like family that's because they our family hello Miguel oh how are you sir gracias this Bakery isn't run by just one person but eight siblings their parents and extended family everybody has to be involved one way or another and at this time of the year it's all hands on deck because on
e of their most popular treats Rosa daras or Kings bread reign [Music] supreme on January 6th many Mexican families enjoy this traditional sweet bread decorated with candied fruits and a little baby doll hidden inside it's a reference to Jesus Christ to it's a celebration a celebration called King's Day which marks the three wise men's visit to the manger now if this sounds familiar that's because New Orleans famous king cake shares the same Catholic Roots dating back to Medieval France for the
lopezes it's more than just a holiday it's the bakery's busiest time of year so everyone grabs an apron to help out reite foras instead of Thanksgiving or well you know you're going to see your whole family at least once a year once a year yeah I can see my father and my mom very proud to see everybody is working 24 hours we talking about 30 family members coming and do the Rosas what's it like working with family because that's a great thing but sometimes maybe not such a great thing yeah that'
s that's true sometimes we don't agree with everything but the most important thing is that at the end of any discussion goodbye I love you it's something that we have that uh from our parents and that's not the only lesson that's been passed down in the Lopez family The Knack for baking goes back Generations as well Miguel's grandfather was a baker in in a cataland asorio a small town in Mexico he passed on his craft to his son Francisco Miguel's dad who later moved here to New York City with h
is family my father immigrated in 1972 73 and he start working in the um restaurant business as a diswasher but the dream of baking bread and pastries never left him that's when his kids stepped in together they opened Don Paco Lopez ponor we said why not to open a bakery so we started 1991 we opened the business to survive for three decades not just survive but to to to do so well to be such a part of the community take something special what is it about this place that's so special that everyt
hing that we make everything that we bake or cook in this place we do it with pride with some so much love and that family pride is clear in their recipes so it was time for me to try my hand at making their popular holiday treat so Miguel who are these youngsters here oh look Don Paco Lopez my father my mom Lopez does you remember making his his first r mhm of choice 8 years old you were 8 years old his father my grandfather he used to put a wood uh box so he can reach the table and teach him h
ow to make Ras who's the better Baker him or you that's right baby yeah still the original now it's Rosa time the first step is creating the Ring of dough like these oh yeah that's a piece of cake yeah piece of bread and after we have it we put it upside down to High baby Jesus all right so everybody knows there's a baby Jesus in cuz you're about taking a bite and all of a sudden oh no no no no nobody wants to buy baby Jesus making Rosa is hard work and it takes everybody in the family to meet c
ustomers demand how many will you do in a day M to satisfy our demand they have to be almost 2,000 two dozen 2,000 2,000 a day yeah 2,000 day very good out but any chance you're looking for um another job one of the siblings don't show up I'm ready okay perfect that's good that we have a record we decorate the Rosa de Rees I prefer to start with a with the cherries then I can start with the orange spel so basically it's to make cers around look at that it's beautiful Tada ah it's a thing of beau
ty and so once you you you've done this then will it you put it in into the oven no they have to they have to sit they have to proof at least like 20 minutes depends how the weather is that affects the proof yeah they definitely that's why you need a weatherman work oh yeah that that's why you here after the sweet bread sits time to go into the oven if I can ask your mom what does it mean to pass this tradition on for her is's very proud to to the Next Generation oh well obviously in good hands
and I mean many hands and I believe you've got a few other family members around just a very just a couple coming in guys W oh my gosh wow look at this W do you know and they're still coming and they're still coming wow my gosh they a small family of thees well this is one heck of a nice sweet family uh I guess every we should all try a little piece don't forget if you get baby Jesus uhhuh you have to throw a party you have to a party oh yeah w I oh oh w w I didn't I didn't see that oh my gosh w
ell all right party at my place here's to a wonderful tradition thank you for sharing it with us thank you thank you graas up next the delicious reason philadelphians line up outside this Italian bakery every Christmas [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Eve [Music] [Applause] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] 3 [Music] [Applause] when you think Christmas treats you usually think fruit cake or Christmas cookies but if you're in the City of Brotherly Love canoli are synon
ymous with [Music] Christmas Philly is known to be full of grrip we'll get through anything no one knows that better than terminy Brothers Bakery over the last 100 years this family-owned shop has faced a great depression and a global pandemic but for them there's no challenge bigger than the holidays the Super Bowl for us every year is Christmas Eve Christmas Eve at teres is something that is of its own we got a long line of folks here that have been waiting for a long time to get these and peo
ple wait all year for this special day every year on December 24th hundreds of people wrap around the block to be among the first to grab a classic Italian treat for their holiday celebration I mean people drive from Baltimore they drive from Boston I we've even had people fly in from California to be here to be in that line people are lining up at the front door at 12:00 at night and they'll sit there with chairs and food when we open the door at 6:00 we bring everybody in we're hugging we're k
issing we have music people that are unaccustomed to you know what Christmas Eve ateres is ask questions like are people crazy is it that good and they miss the point of why people are outside it's a sense of community it's it's a Philly thing as Philly some say as their famous canoli there's many many products that we make that are special to so many different people here but nothing is more dynamic or special to our customers than our canoli got to come and get the canoli best canol around the
shell is never soggy and it's cream based and it's got these little chocolates in it and it's just absolutely perfect they taste that tradition they taste that flavor it's hard to find and hard to duplicate a terminy canol in [Music] [Applause] [Music] perfect [Music] [Applause] he [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Applause] [Music] [Applause] today we are going to make probably about 4500 4500 Canoles today hearing my grandfather's story um about how much passion he
had with these recipes being that they came from his hometown in Sicily it forces you to to realize that this isn't just a product you know this is a Legacy and it needs to be handled with respect and care the legacy of the bakery dating back to the early 1920s when juppi terman immigrated to America from his home in Italy and joined his brother Gano here in Philadelphia he left his family and everything that he knew to come to a country he knew nothing about didn't speak the language had no ide
a about what he was walking into somehow found a way with his brother to be able to start just a little tiny kitchen and Brick by Brick grew this business into something that he can pass on to his son after opening its doors on this same street in 1921 tery Brothers quickly became the go-to place for all types of cakes cookies and of course canoli jeppi terminy turned his little corner bakery into a landmark of sweet sentiment how are you Mr charm okay people would say what what's your secret an
d he didn't get into a real long- winded thing his answer was make good stuff just make good stuff that's T it was very admirable even in his later days when he was in his 90s he was working seven days a week when the store was closed he would sit here in the store this was his life this was his life jeppe taught the business to his only son Vincent senior who would later grow up running the bakery his sons Joseph and Vincent Jr were by his side learning the Family Trade we realized we have some
thing very very special here so we kind of knew as we got older that this was the path that we wanted to take before long it was time for them to live up to the tery brother's name and take over as new owners my father has that Sicilian Philly blood in him he's a stickler to the rules you know it took him a little bit of time to really trust what Vinnie and I are doing here I remember when we were first shipping out our canoli he was so happy to look at the addresses and see where they were goin
g today's a little warm up 5 or 600 and about two or 3 weeks we'll be looking at about maybe 2,000 2200 boxes he was going I can't believe it it's going to Arizona it's going to California look this one's going to Hawaii and you know I think it was at that point that my father had had 100% trust that the business was going in the right direction although some things have changed over the last century a lot has stayed the same but this was my grandfather's favorite machine is it the most efficien
t no is it cranky in the morning yes it's like an old man this machine but all of these the benches our steam kettles you know our gas stove they all original another constant over the years philadelphians love for termines literally it's our wedding day so we figured we do what we enjoy we we've tried many Canoles in the area and probably these are the best by far now Joseph and Vincent Jr are adding their own chapter to the bakery Story preparing to reopen at its original location across the s
treet turning it into a small C it says on this spot the tradition began Germany Brothers Pasa founded March 19th 1921 this is where it all started this is where it was in 1921 was two brothers and they used to bake in the back these were the original light fixtures that my grandfather had took very very good care of these they're very rare so this is the original deed this is the kind of artifact that we're planning on putting up but for now time to get ready for another Christmas Eve terminy 1
00th to be exact it's probably the most stressful 15 minutes of the entire year when we're getting ready to open that door is it not it is and it's the same people every year and then it adds on you know so if you can imagine over the last 100 years the line's like down the block we look at this line at Christmas Eve like they're a part of our family and I also enjoy Christmas Eve at the end um we normally gather around with our staff everybody cuz this is a team effort a family effort and witho
ut everybody putting their lives on hold for a period of time to make this family tradition so special it would never happen then I get a text from you every here saying yo bro did great so proud of you I can't believe you got through it you know it's uh it's a tremendous feeling goes to show nothing's too tough with a little Philadelphian grit and your bro by your side working with my brother is truly an honor I I can't even put in the words what it feels like to know that regardless of opinion
s or disagreements or uh different philosophy opes that there is always somebody there that has your back no matter what I can't imagine like one person you know taking over a third generation business and not having a sibling to lean on or count on I love that I get to work with my brother every day coming up an old-fashioned holiday craft finding a new generation of fans on Tik tock [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1 [Music] [Applause] [Music] come [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Applause] man I got
to tell you on Tik Tock Logan's candies five million of you love their videos and guess what probably almost as many love their candies for decades but what they're known for this time of year candy canes let's all give a big round of applause for candy cane number one live and in color there it is and by December 24th we'll have made about 100,000 candies canes one by one just like you're watching right now wow he's Tik tok's very own Willie Wonka on an app where the Only Rule is to keep things
short and sweet these eye-catching videos have racked up millions of views that's actually a pretty good video Jerry Rowley is the candy making star and owner of Logan's candies his daughter Abby The Mastermind behind the camera came to me and said dad there's a social media out there called Tik Tok I thought we should get in and I didn't really know what that was we're going to start counting out our Stripes as always we're going to begin with stripe number one I never intended it to be this y
ou know marketing thing or this like you know this huge thing I was just like oh I'll just post some videos and see what happens I think it was just something that people had never really seen before it was like there's nothing else really like it now millions of folks follow Logan to watch Jerry pull fold and bend all sorts of candy canes by hand within about 72 hours we had over 25 million views and it was just unbelievable we couldn't believe it took off like that it's just been amazing for t
he store we've sh a big growth in our shipping and even just people coming in we want to get him like a shirt or something that says like I'm Tik Tok famous next up the candy made himself eat this what FL is it oh my gosh I know that FL well mostly just the Tik Tok videos were really fun to watch and the way that they made the candy I thought it'd be really fun to come try like homemade like candy cuz I've never had that before people definitely will recognize him that he thinks it's so funny an
d strange and I do tube while the internet craze may be new Logan's candies has been perfecting its craft since 1933 we hand make all our candies here the oldfashioned way we have the original recipes that we've been using for 87 years so we're just going to begin to pull this out here a little bit give it a little tug a little pull a little stretch we get it just the right length and thickness we're going to give it a little twist and right before your very eyes we have created the candy cane b
y the time we're done we're going to fill up this entire table and we'll make about 400 candy canes this size out of the one batch Jerry developing a sweet tooth for the business at just 12 years old when the store's original owners hired him so I rolled candy cans that first year and baged candy cans and and then the next year I started learning to bend the candy canes by the time he was in college he was hooked so when an opportunity to buy the business came along Jerry and his then girlfriend
Susie decided to take it on we actually uh started dating about uh two weeks before I bought the store we got married in 1985 and then we've just been running it together ever since we were just babies running the candy store I was still in school I was only 16 so I would um get out of school early and come right to work the Logans the family that started the business trusted the rall to carry on their sweet Legacy the wife was still working here when Jerry took over then they would say oh we'r
e so thankful that you guys got the candy store because you're doing it like we did and they were just so thrilled 40 years later the rowes have preserved the store's traditions and with their daughter Abby by their side that sense of family has stayed strong as well I have a lot of good memories just of being like a little kid kid in a candy store I would hide under the table over there and then I just come out to give samples I would like wait for my queue then once I started you know when I c
ould see over the table that's when I started F working on the table Logan's candies makes over 200 Treats but their candy canes Remain the most popular all year long there's St Patty's Day we do Shamrocks for Easter or Springtime that's a little bunny head candy cane basket do those for Mother's Day and Easter car of Davids for Hanukkah there's also one other candy cane they make that has a very special meaning we're making the Hanah cane here which is named after our first daughter Hannah afte
r waiting nearly 10 years to have children the rowes created a candy cane to celebrate the momentous occasion the burgundy and white they're beautiful and they're very special and we made them the year she was born not knowing that she would only have a very short [Music] life oh my gosh Hannah she was amazing Hannah loved the candy store she just loved sharing the candy with everybody but when Hannah was just 3 years old she was diagnosed with leukemia it was always amazing to me that she just
had such faith and she would tell me mom if um if I were to die then I don't want you to spend all your days crying I want you to take care of Abby I want you to laugh she didn't want me to be devastated cuz she knows where she was going and she wasn't going to be in any pain anymore so she was really amazing that way sadly passing away just 5 years later my heart will always be broken I'll be missing Hannah until the day we're reunited but I'm so thankful that we had her the rowley's love for H
annah is apparent everywhere you look 26 years later we still make the candy canes and we still call them the hanak canes and their love for this time of year shines through as well I like coming to Logan because it makes you excited that it's Christmas time and the fresh homemade candy canes and everything I drive in to get them every year for Christmas my whole family loves them we've continued to help other people have really wonderful family memories for the holidays we realize we're part of
Christmas for everybody so many families coming in 20 30 years in a row watching the grandkids grow up the kids grow up it's just amazing and they just keep coming back to make it a family tradition who else can say they do this who else can do this with their family it's those Traditions filled with love family and food of course that make the holidays all the more [Music] sweeter oh oh P there Craig Melvin here filling in for Al Roker on this episode of Family Style and today well today we're
talking talking all about one of the country's most popular desserts and a holiday staple we're talking about pie and as a a southerner and a pie lover pean pean here it's my favorite not pecan pean so this assign was almost too good to be true from our Thanksgiving tables to our 4th of July barbecues to Christmas and the
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