One of the nation's largest pumpkin festivals, the Circleville Pumpkin Show, gets underway this week in Circleville, Ohio.

The show opened Wednesday for its 106th year and runs for four days with more than a hundred pumpkin varietals, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

The pumpkin varieties have been expanding every year," Kurt Engle, manager of the show's pumpkin sales, told the paper. "But most of what's sold are used for decorating."

Click pumpkin for more news from Slashfood.

[Via Columbus Dispatch]

A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.

If all goes well for the Cleveland Cavaliers, sweeping their way through the NBA Playoffs, they'll only have four more games in the Rock-'n'-Roll Capital this season, giving both local and out-of-town fans a chance to drop into one of 14 outposts of the Winking Lizard Tavern.

Sports fans and the craft-craving crowd don't always see eye to eye. "This is the Midwest," partner John Lane says, "Unlike cities like Portland and Seattle where you can't find a yellow beer, [some people here] just want to quaff a big one."

But Lane realizes the importance of having a great craft selection too, with Stone Levitation Ale sidling right up alongside Bud Light. Mass-market brews are the biggest sellers, but Lane strives to get special selections on tap at all Lizard lounges with recent events from craft brewers like Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada. So though Lane jokes that he "wishes the Cavs would lose one or two to extend the season," (careful, buddy) patrons know great suds will be on tap all year long.

Find yesterday's complete draft list from the Winking Lizard Tavern's Gateway District location after the jump.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, I am a football fan.

However, I have to admit that at least one third of my interest in football is not about the game. Sure, I can follow the game, thanks to four years on the high school cheerleading squad (please, spare me all the comments about cheerleaders -- I already hate myself enough about it). I most certainly appreciate the athletics of the sport, and love giving all my love and adoration to Peyton Manning a team, but I think one of the reasons why I love football so much is the lifestyle around football. I'm not talking Friday Night Lights lifestyle (well, maybe I am a little). Like Paula Deen, I love the food and parties and the Super Bowl, for me, is like, Thanksgiving.

Now I know that buckeyes have everything to do with Ohio and pretty much nothing to do with New England, New York, or even Phoenix, where the Super Bowl is taking place, but for me, they are a peanut buttery, chocolate-y representation of football. I didn't post about it much here at the beginning of January, but I went to New Orleans to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes and the LSU Tigers play in the Championship Game for college football. So for now, let's just say that tiny peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate are a great sweet snack to serve your guests during a football party.

We all know that Sarah loves the wedge, but she's not the only one. The cool, refreshing 1/4 head of iceberg lettuce slathered in creamy dressing is a favorite of many, but Lisa, of Restaurant Widow, was not a fan of the salad at all. Until recently, that is. She had this simply divine looking one while dining at the Brio Tuscan Grille in Columbus, OH. While the standard will often include nothing more than the lettuce and bleu cheese dressing, you can see that this one is dressed up with a bit of tomato, extra cheese and a generous serving of crispy, diced bacon. I don't think you'll need a recipe to try your hand at making this one at home, but you'll probably be able to track one down at a local steakhouse if you can't be bothered to put it together yourself.

It is perhaps every baker's dream to take a tour of the KitchenAid factory, but to do so by invitation is something that most bakers can only dream of. When you are the author of more than one wildly successful cookbook, though, it looks like the company will extend an invitation without even having to be asked. Food blogger, author and chef, the ex-pat American in Paris, David Lebovitz was lucky enough to get just such and invitation. He visited the factory in Greenville, Ohio, took a private tour and put on a demonstration of a few things, including rocky road and ice cream for other visitors. Yes- they do offer tours to non-professionals.

They generously allowed David to take photos along the way, so every photo in his post is an exclusive look inside the factory. He checked out some of the very first stand mixers, the assembly lines and the newest colors, like "Meyer Lemon, Martha Green (named after...), Caviar (black with silver flecks), a cheerful Green Apple, Olive, and colorfully-red Bing Cherry." According to David, each mixer takes one day to assemble and each employee assembles around 90 mixers per day. One of the things that I like about KitchenAid is that, in addition to the high quality of their products, nearly everything they sell is made in the United States, not overseas.

He said that it was one of the most fun tours he's taken, with interesting information and a very helpful staff. Be sure to drop in the next time you're passing near Cincinnati:

The KitchenAid Experience
423 South Broadway
Greenville, Ohio
Tel: 1-888-886-8318

I'm not exactly sure that this qualifies as "fusion" cuisine, but the website for Columbus, Ohio-based Taco Ninja is definitely worth a look. Yep, this is a ninja-themed taqueria. From the looks of the menu, the food is still pretty standard fare, although I do see a few items impaled by tortilla shuriken, and the heat level of the salsas range from "geisha" to "seppuku." It seems that their main clientele is OSU students. Browsing their site, I also came across the even more absurd Ninja Burger. Admittedly, Ninja Burger is a satire. I think it was the "30 minutes or less, or we commit seppuku," that tipped me off. 

A small town in Ohio has been seized with controversy. Some of the locals in Burton, Ohio want a picture of town's most famous offering - maple syrup laden pancakes - to be reproduced on the town's highest water tower. The town is already known as Pancake Town USA, as thousands of visitors flock to the town each March to sample pancakes and fresh maple syrup, and the Chamber of Commerce president feels that a towering stack of pancakes, complete with (painted on) butter and syrup, would be the perfect addition to the town. Others, however, feel that the pancake tower would be inappropriate once the syrup-making season is over. The mayor seems to find the idea of pancakes in summer to be "unappetizing."

Samuel Dottore had an ideal getaway vehicle, just the right size to fit his loot: a frozen hunk of meat. In a bizarre tale that asks more questions than it answers, it seems that 45-year-old Dottore met a couple in a bar, was invited back to their home and then offered a ride to a motel. Upon getting in the car, the couple discovered the purloined potroast. They dropped him off on the side of the road.

That's where the golf cart comes in. Dottore stole it to get home - a 40-mile drive from Medina, Ohio to his home in Cleveland.

He was pulled over. He'd been drinking, and he was taking psychiatric medication, so that all affected his judgment. Ahh... that explains it all!