Weird veggie salad

At the supermarket I notice there are all sorts of weird veggies I've never cooked with or just don't like eating. Artichokes and asparagus pique my interest. I also get tomatoes because they sound good with artichokes and asparagus, even though I HATE tomatoes. And then I have some jalapenos in my fridge I never got around to cooking with.

What exactly am I supposed to do with an artichoke? It's got these spikly leaf things... do I cut it open like an onion?

Hmm, the inside looks considerably more edible. I guess it is like an onion!

 Now I think I'll dice everything up and stir fry it.

Oh yeah, I also have this big orange thing. Another veggie I would never buy casually.

I guess I cut into this one too?

For such a big thing I expected it to have a little more edible parts.

...now I have to scrape ALL those seeds out? I don't feel like it. I'm pulling some of the big clumps away but that's it.

Adding the squash.

Mixed in.

Now it's time for stir frying.

I think it's about done.

I'd call this one a success. 3/5 stars on the disaster scale. One big complaint - the squash seeds don't taste very good and they're really hard to get out. It might be a 2/5 (decent) if it wasn't for that.