When life gives you lemons …

It’s furiously cold, but you can zest up your days with in-season citrus fruits

Just when winter gets serious, citrus fruits come into season, boosting moods and appetites with bright and tangy tastes to accent meals and charge up desserts.

You can almost taste warm weather in oranges, lemons, limes and their cousins. All citrus fruits need hot weather to ripen, and most will continue to ripen after they are picked. Grapefruit takes up to 18 months to become ripe, while lemons take about seven months.

Common citrus fruits, such as limes and oranges, are joined by blood oranges, meyer lemons, mandarin oranges, kumquats and even pink lemons in February and March.

I always have lemons in my refrigerator, where they keep wrapped in plastic for up to three weeks. When stored on my counter, they seem to be juicer but last only about a week.

I add a good squeeze of lemon to my tea each morning and prefer the smaller, thin-skinned ones, which seem to have more juice for their weight. Plan on getting three tablespoons of juice and two to three teaspoons of zest from a medium lemon or one cup of juice for six lemons. The zest, which has way more vitamin C, is the grated yellow skin on the surface of the fruit.

One of my main sources of mid-winter cheer comes from Sarah Leah Chase, a favorite cookbook author. I first made her delightful Banana-Citrus Compote in 1991 when I had overnight guests one February weekend and turned to her “Cold-Weather Cooking” cookbook for breakfast inspiration. The recipe, which employs zests from a lime, a lemon and an orange, is beautiful served in a clear glass bowl.

Tossing the banana slices in lime juice preserves their color and prevents them from turning brown. My cookbook has become dogeared with use over the years, but the recipe has been committed to memory and is a treat served at my house every winter. It can be served chilled or at room temperature, but I think the flavors shine when it’s warmer rather than cold.

A search for other great citrus recipes led me to an orange, lemon and scallop salad in Joyce Goldstein’s “The Mediterranean Kitchen.” A black pepper vinaigrette accents the peppery flavors of the watercress.

Common citrus fruits, such as limes and oranges, are joined by blood oranges, meyer lemons, mandarin oranges, kumquats and even pink lemons in February and March.

Winter-weary households are given a shot of warm weather when slices of lemons, blood orange and oranges are prepared with wine and scallops for this delicious Scallop, Orange and Lemon Salad.

PHOTOS BY JANET PODOLAK — THE NEWS-HERALD Lemons, useful in many dishes, sit in a crystal bowl.