Rating: 
Summary: five stars for the recipes!!
Review: Good recipes and research!! However, it is sad to see someone take full credit for another persons work and research. If you buy this book, do so knowing that you are supporting the sick kids and not the author. I don't know how someone gets off on selling other peoples work and feel good about it. Its a shame. She gives no recognition to the chef and his staff for their work. The same people that she refers to as "Hells Angels," and "Crips and Bloods," are the ones that worked on these recipes. I know the people who worked on these recipes personally and they are well respected people in their community. Its sad that the author has to resort to distasteful humor about the way she describes the kitchen crew as "Hells Angels and Crips and Bloods." Oh well, it just shows that she is childish to even stoop to that level with her remarks. I bet the author cant even boil water the right way. She probably even burns it. The kitchen staff at the time did a good job coming up with these recipes. Good job Ron and Ruben.
Rating: 
Summary: Home on the Imus Range
Review: Lets not be guilty of splitting hairs here shall we. While, to one degree or another, Don & Deidre Imus are doing a worthwhile venture in organizing and sustaining a ranch for kids with cancer, this couples recent release " The Imus Ranch: Cooking for Kids and Cowboys " does smack of not so little grandstanding by our authors. Why? Inquiring minds may want to know. There's an old saying that goes " no good deed goes unpunished " and needless to say the Imus's seem to have taken this colloquial to heart. Turning to Mr. Imus's regular early morning MSNBC show one is barraged with the famous crumudgeons rants and raves about keeping up the ranch and how much trouble it seems to be for our favorite AARP talk-show host. One can only wonder why he would attempt such a huge venture if indeed it was the almost insumountable obstacle that he seems to constantly reminds his listeners that it really is. Nevertheless Mr. Imus, with no small religious fervor, chronically regales us with all the trouble he understakes for these sick children and how, in his very own words, " I simply don't need all this! " All the while turning a rather unpleasant shade of red with eyes bulging, mumbling incoherently and looking for all intense purposes as if he may blow the proverbial gasket. Ah, apparently the life of a good-natured, though highly irrascible, talk show host is never an easy one! Or so one would think from listening to the "Iman." Apparently our talk/radio show host has no qualms with letting the world know just what a truly outstanding samaritan he misguidedly believes he ctually believes he is. "Don, me thinks you protest too much!" All this would be good and well but to release a cookbook that seems little more then another sad example of him and the Mrs. " blowing their very own horn " seems not only disingenuous but even a little unseemly as well. While hiding under the guise of 'do-gooders' the Imus's tend to ultimately come across as a couple who are seeking sainthood for their well-intended, if not intensely self-aggrandizing, purposes. The book, while offerng little in the way of respectable recipies, has our favorite cowboy couple in full Southwest overload with pictures of the ranch and of course with photos of their own son Wyatt as well. Sadly, nothing seems to be off limits for airwave's very own version of Roy and Dale Evans. Again, a noble cause for kids with cancer but Don Imus just cannot seem to be able not to parade him and his wife's not so noble virtues for all the world to see. Sadly, the whole venture seems rather creepy and misguided in its heavy-handedness. Indeed, perhaps no good deed ever really does go unpunished.
Rating: 
Summary: DON'T BUY IT!
Review: I was totally disappointed with this book. The recipes are not very authentic or original. There are far better Vegan Recipe Books out there. Most of the time I'm willing to donate to a good cause, but this certainly is not one.
Rating:
Summary: NOT a Cookbook
Review: I couldn't care less about the radio show, the ranch or as Larry King called them ... The Bickersons! I thought I was buying a cookbook. That's how it's being advertised. The "recipes" are a joke. Save your money folks.
Rating:
Summary: Boooooring!
Review: This book is so far fetched that is is very difficult to maintain any interest in it. Unless you are a die hard Imus fan, I cannot forsee any reason someone would want to read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Book too expansive to be effective
Review: Most of the legitimate criticisms of this book (not the personal attacks, no matter how true) are on target. Deirdre Imus has combined a cookbook with essays and beautiful photographs, but the end result fails. If the focus of The Imus Ranch had been food, this could have worked. As has been pointed out, there are some contradictions in the recipes, primarily in the uses of ingredients that aren't healthy choices. Recipes can be tweaked, of course, and this isn't necessarily fatal. The main problem is the book is way too expansive. Although the best cookbooks make good use of the author's narrative, the ruminations ultimately wander back to the main focus, food. That doesn't happen here effectively. In fact, there are points when the narrative degenerates into a rant and then a second rant follows. After suffering through The Imus Ranch, I'm still not sure what it is. I know what it isn't: a cookbook.
Rating:
Summary: Very weak as cookbook, health guide
Review: Reactions to COOKING FOR KIDS AND COWBOYS tend to fall into two camps: those who love the Imuses support the book, those who detest them don't. I'll try to make this a straightforward review. Anyone who knows nutrition would have problems with the ingredients proposed here. While the author espouses a holistic approach to food, she actually uses substances--onion powder, for God's sake--one wouldn't want to find in a fast food restaurant. A vegetarian myself, I try to make the food at least palatable when I have others for dinner. Unfortunately these dishes are very, very bland and could have the opposite effect on children and encourage bad choices and obesity. One more note: why does the author think PROCESSED FOOD of any kind should be an ingredient??? Dear Lord, that's more toxic than meat itself. I must also point out cooking times. While it is commendable not to overcook veggies, the same cannot be said for--believe it or not--brown rice and other starches. Yet that is what is suggested here. Finally, I agree with the author that chemicals and other environmental toxins may cause cancer, but she apparently is ignorant of the fact that we, to date, don't have any reliable studies to back up her claims. In sum, this is a bad book not because of who wrote it but because of its poor content.
Rating: 
Summary: No Axe to Grind
Review: I'm about to buy a copy of this book for my wife, who's a health food Nazi. Our daughter is a vegetarian; the rest of the family actually eats meat, with relish. I watch Imus most mornings & record what I don't watch in real time. Having just read the 124 reviews, I've got to wonder about Amazon's software. Is the same person puttting up multiple reviews, or by some strange coincidence, do all these "different" people have a remarkably similar point of view and syntax? Does Amazon software check the IP addresses against the rest of the data? Certainly doesn't look like it. Anyway, I'm willing to support the ranch & get a cookbook that my wife and daughter might find useful. Reading these reviews has been a real trip. Stern fans indeed -- the grammar and construction appear to be giveaways, to say nothing of the spelling. I'll post again after we've had a chance to use some of the recipes.
Rating:
Summary: The Reviewers Are Only Being Honest!
Review: Thank you, Amazon, for allowing us to be honest about this cookbook. Don Imus uses the radio waves to con millions out of us for his retirement spa. It is nice for the little people to be heard somewhere too. Not only are the recipes bad in this cookbook, but if you following the exact timings and temperatures given in the cookbook, the recipes only work at high altitude. It is a shame for Deirdre to misrepresent these recipes as her own. It is well documented and it also has become a legal issue that Deirdre stole these recipes from the chef that she fired right after turning in the manuscript. Oh well, I guess she did not need him anymore. It is also well-documented that Deirdre Imus has been involved in many legal battles over not paying people for their services performed on the ranch. It is also documented at Villanova University that Deirdre only attended college there two years. She did not graduate with a degree in International Relations, as she claims, nor did she spend her non-existent junior year abroad studying at the Sorbonne, as she also claims. Call the Admissions Office and verify this yourselves. It is public record. There are thousands of worthwhile and honest charities out there. This IS NOT one of them.
Rating:
Summary: Deirdre, you're an Angel!
Review: What a shame that Amazon is allowing all the hate-mongers to pollute the review process. Go spread your hate somewhere else, like Mars. This is an excellent book and I applaud the Imus family for being so compassionate and acting on it. Buy the book, you won't regret it. Ignore the wackos that are spewing their hate here.
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