What grows in my garden?

What with my trip to Iowa, the several days of focusing on nothing but my grandfather's death, and being sick for over a week after all of that was over, I really haven't managed to turn my attention back to the vegetable garden. But every now and then I walk past it, looking to see if there is anything obvious that I should be tending to (other than the huge tomato plants falling over, and gargantuan weeds sucking up all the soil's nutrients).

Recently I finally squatted down and took a closer look at what was going on beneath the leaves.

This is what I saw:

Yipes. That would be growing on the one squash plant that survived my seedling disaster. It came from a packet of seeds called "Squash Summer Medley Hybrid Blend", from Park Seed.

This is what the squash fruits are supposed to look like:

Apparently, the surviving plant is a zucchini. According to basic-recipes.com, "The best zucchinis are the small (5 inches and under), tender ones. Most chefs agree: anything over 8 inches is fit only for stuffing."

I have a lot to learn about vegetable gardening. This, my first zucchini, is a bit larger than 5-8 inches:

I plan to make crunchy zucchini sticks with this one, many recipes for which can be found at basic-recipes.com. I imagine this dish is more about the crunch of the crust than the flavor of the fruit.