American Indian - The recipe of Beans and Maize requires pinch and release, cognitive skills, memorization, fine finger coordination and sensory stimulation

Miriam Mellon

Italy - Why Ifind cooking Italian Chicken Casserole therapeutic: When I recreate recipes from my past, it stimulates my olfactory sense and brings back memories from my childhood.

Cathy Richau

Cajun - The recipe for Cajunesque Fried Patties can be adapted by getting ingredients that are already chopped up. There would then be no cutting required.

Lori Brawe

Israel - Potato Kugel is a nutritiously good vegetable dish. It provides a simple structured recipe. There is lots of grating and choping for flexion and extension of the elbow. Mechanical repetition, eye-hand coordination and motor planning are used while combining all ingredients. There is good sensory input: visual (colorful), smell (freshvegetables and cheese), tactile (can be molded). The dish is economical and versatile (may be eaten hot or cold).

Margie Garelle

Colombia - I find cooking Garlic Shrimps (Camarones al Ajillo) therapeutic because it encourages independence and facilitates patience. Through the use of adaptive devices it can enable an individual to reach his/her long and short term goals.

Amanda Vasquez

Jamaica - Cooking West Indian Candy CoConut Drops is therapeutic because it relieves stress and tension. After the activity is finished you can enjoy youer meal.

Sharon Lorraine Brooks

Domenican Republic - Cooking Beans With Plantain gives people the opportunity to use their hands and to improve comprehension of a task. They are also doing something for themselves. We call it daily living.

Maria Reyes

New England - Breaded Filled of Cod is a project that starts off and remains relatively simplistic, so the ability to reproduce this dish should not be a problem. However, turning the fillet can be taxing on one's frustration tolerance, so gentleness/patience is a major factor involved to archieve the aesthetic quality of the finished product.

Paul Kirchner

France - The Spinish Quiche recipe requiresgood cognitive skills and strong concentration during the entire activity. Good motor skills are a plus. this activity helps a person to feel they have accomplished something great, because the end result of this recipe is delicious.

Tanya Yates

Panama - Both Rice and Peas provide for tactile stimulation and could be counted out for cognitive skills.

Andrea Lawrence

Guyana - The recipe of Shepherd's Pie involves eye-hand coordination in mixing and judgement to determine when the meat is brown enough.Sequencing is important: steps must be followed in order. There is stimulation of the gustatory sense in that the food should be tasted to determine the appropriate amount of spices.

Gwenette Gibson

Peru - Baked Potatoes With Cream On Top (papa a la Huancaina) recipe provides a structured activity for following rules. For examle, boil potatoes for 20 minutes. Eye hand coordination is also used in putting the milk & crackers into the blender. Cognitive skills are needed to recognize and remember whwre the ingredients go and how much time it takes to boil the potatoes. This activity could be used for evaluation of perceptual abilities as the topping is placed over the potatoes.

Johnny Cusirramos

Haiti - When I am cooking Chicken Rice Jardiniere, I find it very ralaxing because I concentrate on making the food perfect. This recipe uses cognitive skills, memorization, fine finger coordination and sensory stimulation. Cooking is good for many kinds of people. It could calm a person who is anxious.

Marie Dorce

Puerto Rico - Cooking Empanadas (Spanish Meat Pies) is special to me. it's an opportunity to express love and appreciation to my family and friends. I like to use fresh ingredients, not only because the food tastes better, but also because it keeps my mind occupied since it takes a little longer to prepare. When I am under stress, cooking relaxes me and I'm able to think more rationally and keep things in perspective. But the best part of all is the acknowledgment of my efforts. I haven't lost one customer yet!

Nilka Morello

Hawaii - The person cooking Toni's Fruit Salad must have work tolerance for mechanical repetition, because there is much chopping. The best cooks have a fine manipulative ability with the knife, and the patient can achieve this with practice.

Toni Spencer

Trinidad - Cooking Sponge Cake Recipe is therapeutic because it involves use of hands and arms. When people cook they must use their cognitive skills as well as physical skills. Cooking is a good therapeutic activity which can provide quick results especially for someone with a low frustration tolerance level. With this recipe perceptual aspects aspects may be enhanced through size discrimination as the cake rises and by introducing cake decorating techniques.

Denise Jackbir

India - Cooking Beef Curry involves the following motions: elbow flexion, elbow extension, forearm pronation, forearm supination, wrist flexion, wrist extension, finger flexion, thumb abduction, pinch and release.

Leonard Itwaru

Venezuela - The joy of cooking Barbecued Swordfish is for most people a therapeutic activity. The preparation of a delicious meal plattre can be seen as an activity that not only allows independence but also provides great stimulation of the senses -visual, olfactory, tactile, and gustative. The final end product of cooking gives the cooker a sense of accomplishment and increases his or her self esteem. When working with a patient a COTA could find cooking to be a good activity to: increase range of motion, restore sensory input, enable a client to fallow structured activity, increase the complexity of cooking by preparing more complicated dishes, evaluate a client's manual dexterity or pinch and release action.

Alberto Kohler

Ireland - For someone with limitation cooking Corned Beef and Cabbage is a simple, one pot, delicious and nutritious meal. It also utilizes judgement to tell when the food is done.

Catherine Tello

U.S.A. - I find cooking Red Velvet Cake Recipe to be therapeutic in relieving stress and in allowing for self expression.

Sandra Speed

The therapeutic value of making Peach Cobbler is in the preparation. It takes eye hand coordination to make desert. The recipe requires actual ability to direct skilled motor activity based on visual coordinates.

Karen R. Robertson