Thursday, December 25, 2008

Imus Ranch or Cheese Companion

Imus Ranch: Cooking for Kids and Cowboys

Author: Deirdre Imus

The Imus Ranch ransports the reader to a unique place that the author and her husband, talk-show host Don Imus, created: a 4,000-acre working cattle ranch set in rolling hills and mesa country 50 miles east of Santa Fe. The children--who have cancer--visit the Imus Ranch and work alongside authentic western ranch hands, learning to ride horses and rope calves. The experience refuels their bodies and their spirits, and they leave stronger than when they came.

As Deirdre Imus explains:"We welcome kids who have known too much sickness and too much death, and we give them something they urgently need: a sense of independence and purpose through healthy, vigorous living."

Not only do the kids enjoy adventure at the ranch, but they learn from the Imuses that nutritious foods are fundamental to a happy, healthy life. Illustrated with full-color photographs that reflect the ranch's warmth and vitality, the book presents more than 125 vegetarian recipes that meet the true taste test: kids and cowboys love them! Readers will come away with a new appreciation of how important and how easy it is to incorporate healthier living into their everyday lives.

Publishers Weekly

Imus founded the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology, a program that aims to identify, control and ultimately prevent environmental factors that cause adult and, especially, pediatric cancer. She rounds out this collection of basic vegetarian fare with a lengthy essay about life on the Santa Fe, N.Mex. ranch where she and her husband, radio personality Don Imus, practice "healthy living and healthy cooking" and teach self-reliance and horsemanship to kids who have "known too much sickness and too much death." Imus's diet is "organic, whole-food, ovo vegetarian, meaning that we don't eat dairy or animal products, but we do eat eggs," and she explains it with a rundown of the ranch's organic "vegan pantry." The informal recipes focus on basics like Orange Poppy Seed Muffins and Cowboy Potato Chowder, and fast sandwiches like I-Man Chimichangas. Dinner selections feature nostalgic favorites such as Spanish Rice updated with brown rice and olive oil, and Imus cleans up desserts (including Carrot Cake and Jeannie's All Out Brownies) by substituting unbleached flour and unrefined sugar. In addition to healthy lifestyle prescriptives and thank-you notes from some of the camp's young alumni, Imus includes sidebars on topics ranging from non-toxic head lice remedies to green cleaning agents to the dangers of PVC in children's toys. She ends this informative book with a complete nine-day menu, spanning the average duration of Imus Ranch guests. (May) Forecast: While serving more to promote the worthy mission of the Imus Ranch than to provide unique recipes, this consciousness-raising cookbook may appeal to novice vegetarians or to those interested in supporting holistic education and children's health. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.



New interesting book: Wordpress for Dummies or To Infinity and Beyond

Cheese Companion: The Connoisseur's Guide

Author: Judy Ridgway

From Appenzeller to Wensleydale, from Gruyere to Parmigiano-Reggiano, the world of cheese is one to be discovered and savored by everyone who loves to eat. This accessible new paperback version of the original, comprehensive guide to selecting and enjoying the world’s most popular cheeses is designed for easy reference, with an alphabetical directory of 106 varieties. Profiled by name, origin, characteristics, variations, and serving selections, each entry also indicates the type of milk used in production, the cheese’s pungency, fat content, and compatibility with specific wines. A short section traces the history of cheese and how it is made.

Library Journal

After a short section devoted to the history of cheese and how it is made, this latest book from prolific food writer Ridgeway (International Vegetarian Cooking, Crossing, 1997) becomes a directory consisting of profiles of over 100 different cheeses. Entries vary in length from one to three pages and provide information on each cheese's name, origin, characteristics, variations, and serving suggestions. Each entry also offers a clever "cheese wheel" symbol indicating the type of milk used in creating the cheese, its maturity period, its pungency, and suggestions of wines to serve as accompaniment. While this work does include a few recipes, serious cooks will gravitate more toward Christian Teubner's The Cheese Bible (Penguin Studio, 1998) or Julie Harbutt's The World Encyclopedia of Cheese (Lorenz, 1998), which focus more on cooking with cheese. Ridgeway's book is perfect for patrons who need practical information about the stuff itself. Recommended for medium to large public libraries.--John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., AZ



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