My fridge overfloweth...

with vegetables. And, confession-time, although I am vegetarian and have been for years, I am a little timid about trying new vegetables. But today I joined my neighborhood's CSA, and came home with:

• 3 (small) heads of lettuce
• 1 bunch of kale
• lots of pattypan squash (the flower-shaped ones)
• several small cucumbers
• two enormous, question-marked shape, hairy, spiky cucumbers (I am going to have nightmares about these)
• 5 eggplant of two different varieties
• a few bell peppers
• some of the most beautiful tomatoes I have ever seen
• 5 apples
• a bunch of nectarines
• lots and lots of already-too-ripe little yellow plums

All that for $18 a week ($10 if you don't get the fruit share). The bounty!

But seriously, folks, I need your help. The tomatoes and normal cucumbers and peppers are going into gazpacho this weekend, the eggplant is easy (I love eggplant), and I can figure out the squash and zucchini. I need recipes to introduce me - gently - to kale and giant cucumbers.