Domenica Marchetti is a food writer, recipe developer and cooking teacher who specializes in seasonal Italian home cooking and the author of The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy. Visit her website at www.domenicacooks.com. You can find more of her recipes here.

I have only been to Morocco by way of the movie Casablanca and through the words of my former cleaning woman, Fatima.

Like me, Fatima is an avid home cook and every other Tuesday when she would arrive, we would spend a good amount of time talking about food we had cooked for our families. She described in vivid detail delicious-sounding tagines of lamb or chicken, the proper way to make couscous, and soups featuring lentils and other legumes, assorted fresh vegetables, and spices.

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Amanda McClements is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance food writer and the blogger behind Metrocurean.

Sweet or salty?

Salty, all day, every day. Can you pickle your insides?

Which ingredient(s) do you use most?

Pork, mostly bacon and sausage. Garlic would be a close second. When I read a recipe, I typically double or triple whatever the amount of garlic it calls for.

What’s the cooking sound you most love?

Popcorn pushing the lid off a heavy pot.

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Whether you’re firing up the grill, having a picnic or just planning to kick back and spend the day drinking, Cookthink wishes those lucky enough to take the holiday a happy Memorial Day!

Long before commercial production of Herbes de Provence began in the 1970s, this versatile aromatic mix was popular with Provençal grandmothers, who crushed it between their fingers before using it to add complex herbal flavor to roast chicken, marinated meats, soups and vegetable dishes. You can now find Herbes de Provence in supermarkets and farmer’s markets throughout the world. But you may have all the ingredients needed to make Herbes de Provence yourself right in your very own cupboard.

Recipe: Goat Cheese With Pastis And Herbes De Provence (Cookthink)

The first question we ask in our weekly Cookthink Questionnaire is “Sweet or salty?”

And while there are certain unequivocal adherents to one or the other camp, the answer we most hear is “both,” usually followed by “at the same time.”

I do think that most people are born with a predominantly sweet or salty tooth, but it’s the combination of the two qualities that often seduces us in the end. Oatmeal cookies sprinkled with sea salt, pineapple fried rice, a watermelon and feta salad, chicken pot pie with apples — these dishes sing to us because they hit sweet and the salty (or savory) notes at once.

How about you? Are you sweet or salty? Or both at the same time?

I am always looking for ways to make use of what some may consider scraps. So when the blue-eyed boy at the farmers market asks if I want the greens cut off my leeks or spring onions, I always wince at the thought that those flavorful green bits will come to naught.

A pang of self-congratulation always washes over me when I find uses for parmesan rinds, parsley stems and other overlooked culinary real estate. But it never even occurred to me to wonder if those lovely wasted radish leaves were edible until I stumbled on Clotilde’s recipe for radish leaf pesto the other day.

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Nancie McDermott is a food writer and cooking teacher specializing in the cuisines of Southeast Asia. Find out more about Nancie at her website or her brand-new blog. You can find some of Nancie’s recipes online at Cookthink.com.

Sweet or salty?

Salty/Sweet. They’re friends.

Which ingredient(s) do you use most?

Fish sauce, palm sugar, cilantro, wild lime leaves, eggs, butter and vanilla (not all at once in the same dish).

What’s the cooking sound you most love?

Sizzle

What’s your favorite cooking smell?

It’s a tie between jasmine rice and bread; that little aroma-puff released when they’re just about done.

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Hair of the Dog is Cookthink’s Monday morning cocktail column by Rob Chirico, the author of the Field Guide to Cocktails. Read more about Rob here.

These days when I sit back with a gin and tonic, I make certain to use only a quality tonic, one that is not made with that beast of beasts, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Since most commercial brands of tonic have been defiled with this sludge since the 1980s, a premium, bightingly assertive tonic, like Q or Fever Tree, is a thing of beauty. But what if you have no recourse to fine tonic? Enter the Rickey.

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The Sunday Dinners project is a collaboration between Andrew Schloss and Cookthink.

Cooks are incessant matchmakers, coupling ingredients with the zeal of professional marriage brokers. Driven by the notion that anything can be made to taste better in the presence of its ideal mate, we are always searching for the perfect flavor combination. We wheedle and taste-test and probe, but sometimes accident does all the work for us, leaving us with nothing in the cupboard but a bottle of hot sauce and some blue cheese dressing.

Legend has it that that’s exactly what happened to Theresa Bellisimo, owner of the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, who, in 1964 was delivered an excess of chicken wings and decided to serve them in a glaze of hot sauce.

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If you’re so broke or apprehensive about the economy that even Friday night Happy Hour feels like a forbidden indulgence, why not bring it home? You’ve been good all week. Tonight, treat yourself or invite some friends over for these inexpensive, junky, indulgent and crowd-pleasing finger-food treats.

1. We’re making this weekend’s Sunday Dinner — Andy’s sweet and spicy take on Buffalo Wings with bacon in the blue cheese dressing and honey in the wing sauce — tonight.

2. Deep-fried tortilla chips are worth the indulgence if made in your own kitchen and eaten while still warm with some homemade guacamole or salsa.

3. Quesadillas with black beans and cheddar are budget-friendly and filling.

4. Karina’s gluten-free Nachos Fabuloso are made even more so thanks to a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

5. To wash it all down, make a pitcher of sparkling margaritas, Micheladas or classic limeade for the teetotalers and the kids.