Dandelion Stir-Fry

My poor little lamb:It's been a bit of a job keeping her comfortable and content after the operation to drain and clean out that infected lymph node. She can breathe and think now, with the displacement of her trachea and the blockage of one jugular eased, but replacing those dangers are the active discomfort of that huge bandage around her neck, and the constant itching.

Oh, that itching!

We do have many distractions. We have Legos. We have Netflix (While her sister was at school, Willow and I watched a three-part Nova special on the evolution of humans. We are now experts on the subject). We have party planning. We have bubbles. We have our garden, in which we have just planted sunflower seeds:And we have dandelions. I have been wanting to cook with dandelions since last summer, just after dandelion season here, when dandelion season struck at 5 Orange Potatoes--seriously, dandelion syrup! Dandelion jelly! The awesomeness was overwhelming.

In consultation with Willow and I picked a mess of dandelion greens from our yard: Willow actually does this off and on all day, and so I tend to keep a Ziplock baggie of dandelion greens in the vegetable crisper for her. The greens are really the tenderest and tastiest BEFORE the dandelion flower emerges, but Will also honors no such distinctions, and so our greens contain a mixture of young, tender flowers, and the older, tougher, more bitter ones. No matter, really, as they're all going to be cooked.

Last night for dinner, I made Steve Brill's dandelion saute: There are loads of carrots and onions to go with the dandelion greens, and I added a sweet potsticker sauce to counter the bitterness of the greens until there was only tastiness left:And the saute was enjoyed with leftover pasta.

The little lamb has her huge bandage off now, although being left with a large, open incision, the large, sticky band-aid over which has to be peeled off and changed twice a day, is not exponentially better, IMHO, but as I always say, baby steps, my friends. Baby steps.

Oh, and hooray for narcotic pain meds!