I Love You : Recipes from the Heart

Actress and model Anderson dazzled readers with her memoir, Love, Pamela (2023). In her first cookbook, she shares the labor of love and personal joy of cooking for loved ones. Readers will enjoy Anderson's personal notes, stories, and pictures presented throughout the book, which invites readers in like close family members, recounting memories while cooking together. With a farm-to- table perspective, Anderson shares recipes for cinnamon rolls with maple glaze, heirloom tomato galette with cashew cream, herby French potato salad, and harissa-baked whole cauliflower. These are plant-based recipes for all kinds of foods, desserts, and even beauty products (rose hip oil). Anderson doesn't forget pets either, sharing a recipe for apple nut cookie treats. Anderson started this project in order to share favorite family recipes with her two adult sons and their girlfriends, who are pictured in these pages, and now it's a gift to all families.

In this intimate debut, former Baywatch star Anderson showcases "flexible" vegan recipes that she jotted on index cards for her sons when they moved out of the family home on Vancouver Island. Dishes are largely simple and familiar: rice bowls with vegetables and sesame-studded tofu, a roasted whole head of cauliflower, and sweet potato "burgers." More innovative choices include crispy Persian-style rice, and pierogis filled with potatoes, peas, and mint. Gauzy photographs and handwritten inspirational messages fill out the 80 recipes. The text, rife with ellipses, is not terribly informative: Anderson writes that she is "drawn to ritual and traditions" in the introduction to an afternoon tea chapter that includes cucumber sandwiches and green juice. There are sweet indulgences, too: spelt cinnamon rolls sport a maple glaze, and a chapter on desserts includes an olive oil cake with coconut oil--chocolate ganache. Bread merits its own chapter ("I like to think of bread and its history, made over centuries by many... like giving birth"), including instructions for sourdough starter. Also covered are homemade beauty treatments and pet treats, including berry balls with CBD to quell canine anxiety. Though Anderson strikes a down-to-earth pose, her celebrity is the major attraction. With the feel of a family photo album, this is a gift for Anderson's fans. (Oct.)