Mr and Mrs Punter Cook Up a Storm in the kitchen, reviewing Kim Selby’s debut cookbook, Everything with love.
When you are the second youngest of seven siblings, hand-me-downs are par for the course but, for Kim Selby, the best hand-me-downs were a host of family-friendly recipes passed down to her by her two biggest inspirations, her mum and grandma.
Growing up in Illinois, food was central to family life, and this became even more important during her teenage years when she was a competitive ice-skater and travelling the world. Her family recipes were a comforting link to home, even ringing home one Christmas Eve to get her mum’s Cinnamon Roll recipe.
It was that love of not just food, but the warmth and memories that family meals create that led her to develop her debut cookbook, Everything With Love, which was successfully launched in the USA in February 2025 and is now coming to the UK.
Having hung up her skates, she entered the world of TV and films as an actress and producer. Although she had a small part in a Dwayne Johnson film (The Game Plan) and produced and appeared in her own movie, her starring role was to come as a mother to her three children.
As she had done as a child, she found her own children asking her for recipes, so what started off as a few notes soon grew into several binders of recipes in her kitchen, and soon friends started asking for them as well.
The Covid lockdown only increased the requests, so she decided to compile them all into a cookbook, taking the brave step to self-publish in order to retain more creative control.
The result is not so much a cookbook but a celebration of friends and family where each of the 100+ recipes aims to create (or recreate) memories that will last a lifetime – and many of them come with a special memory shared by Kim of a time that was precious to her.
“We eat because we are designed to,” said Kim. We need it to nourish our bodies. But food is more than sustenance; it feeds our souls. It is multi-sensory; taste, smell, look, feel and sound call up feelings, emotions and memory. So why would food not be one of the greatest expressions of love?”
It is also crafted with the day in mind, sections begin with breads and hearty breakfasts and continue through vibrant salads, family-sized flavourful mains and decadent desserts. There is even (much to The Punters’ delight) a section on drinks which includes an Irish Whiskey Eggnog, perfect for those grim UK winter nights.
We were lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the book, which is beautifully presented, and there are dozens and dozens of images of Kim with her family and friends enjoying not just the food but the preparation and cooking as well, which, in many ways, can even be the most enjoyable part of the process. What can be better than spending time in your kitchen with your loved ones, preparing and cooking a meal? Even better when, as many of the photos show, a glass or two of wine might just have to be involved!
Knowing how to cook is not the same as being able to tell others how to cook your food. Whilst many books or recipes can assume a level of skill on behalf of the reader, each one of Kim’s recipes is very much written with the untrained cook in mind – but without feeling condescending. Every step is set out in detail, the recipes even tell you how many turns of the pepper grinder to use, and there is a whole page on how to make brown butter, so success is pretty much guaranteed.
We opted to try Mom’s Carrot Cake and, despite Mrs Punter’s horror that we were going to actually stick to a recipe (for once), the result was delicious.
Another American icon is pumpkin pie, and Kim admits that it was this recipe which took her the longest to perfect, which was important as it was one of her mum’s favourites. Luckily, Kim had three on-hand food critics and tasters in her children, who have even got in on the act with their own recipes in the book.
Her Bolognese sauce was a labour of love and is her food heaven, maybe because it involves her three favourite ingredients, garlic, olive oil and black pepper, all mixed with her favourite spoon (we all have one) and layered over home-made pasta. And if there is food heaven, then, as Saturday Kitchen will tell you, there is always a food hell. For Kim, it is snails, and even saying the word was enough to crack Kim’s cheery disposition.
So what is next for Kim? No doubt the binders will start filling up and there will be more books to come and she hopes to bring some of it to life with social media or even a TV series. Another option would be a wine yoga series given the final photo in the book, and if any development help is needed for that then The Punters would be happy to help, more with the wine than the yoga of course!
Everything With Love by Kim Selby is available from Amazon as well as https://www.everythingwithlove.com/
A number of complimentary recipes are available to try on the website, such a Brioche French Toast with Strawberry Compote and a Fig, Fennel & Prosciutto Pizza.
The Punter’s Top Tips To Get The Most From The Cookbook
- Fan ovens are not common in the USA, so the temperatures given (in Fahrenheit) are for a normal oven, not a fan oven.
- Invest in some measuring cups as the recipes are generally in “cups” rather than specific weights. You can find a handy converter here:
Cups to Grams Converter For Ingredients
Those across the pond have different names for many of the ingredients we use. Here are the UK versions of some of the ingredients:
a. Scallions – Spring onions.
b. Arugula – Rocket.
c. Cilantro – Coriander.
d. Pepitas – Pumkin seeds.
e. Cremini mushrooms – Chestnut mushrooms.
f. Zucchini – Courgette.
g. Eggplant – Aubergine.
h. Canola oil – Rapeseed oil.
i. All-purpose flour – Plain flour.
j. Powdered sugar – Icing sugar.
k. Tubes of crescent rolls – Ready to bake croissant dough.
l. Heavy cream – Double cream.
m. Half and half cream – Not available in the UK. Use single cream or whipping cream.
