Recipes: A dozen things to do with oranges

Oranges can lend a welcomed sweet, citrusy kick to meats, cooked vegetables or salads, as this selection of a dozen recipes featuring oranges will attest.

With this sampling of recipes, you could produce a multi-course meal consisting of nothing but orange-infused dishes, including an orange barbeque chicken, orange fried rice, orange-glazed snow peas and a couple of orange vinaigrettes suitable for salads.

Market Report: Santa Barbara market may be world's best

You'd be hard-pressed to find a farmers market anywhere on earth that is better than the Saturday market in Santa Barbara, California. To begin with, few if any other places can boast as staggering a diversity of year-round growing regions as can be found within a few hours' drive of this balmy town, which is squeezed between the beach and rugged mountains, with high plains, alpine heights and deserts beyond. It is also a very tightly-regulated market, which has kept out peddlers of second-rate wholesale produce, who threaten the integrity of far too many so-called farmers markets. The innovative farmers who come to this market are the real deal and are driven by the market's sophisticated customer base to offer extraordinary produce.

On a warm, sunny mid-winter Saturday in late February, there were more than 75 vendors on hand, selling countless dozens of varieties of fruits, nuts and vegetables. Cherimoyas were a great bargain, at prices ranging from $2.50 to as low as $1.25 per pound. I loaded up on those. I also picked up some unusual varieties of citrus fruits, including four types of oranges, limequats and some kaffir limes, which I'll use along with the lemon grass I also bought in some Thai chicken soup.

Here's the report on my Feb. 25, 2006 visit to the Santa Barbara farmers market.

Market Report: Cardoons on the dock on San Francisco Bay

The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, situated alongside the historic Ferry Building on a pier that juts into San Francisco Bay, is a Mecca for the city's legions of sophisticated foodies. Dozens of varieties of seasonal fruits and vegetables from regional farms can be found at this market year round, including such exotic fare as cardoons. What should you do with this cousin of the artichoke? The Contra Costa County farmer who brought these to the Ferry Plaza market provided Victoria, Seasonal Chef's Bay Area contributor, with a recipe for cardoons sauted with potatoes.

Read Victoria's report on her Feb. 11 visit to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.