Librarians and food

Next week we are getting what my mom used to call "visiting firemen" - meaning other academic docs who would come to town to address groups at the medical school where my Dad was on the faculty - Alane Wilson, hip librarian and one of the team who writes the 'blog It's All Good, will be visiting to speak at a librarians' meeting here. And instead of taking her out for dinner after the talk, which would be the usual thing, I am going to cook, and instead of having a sit down, we are going to have a buffet of substantial appetizers.

So far the menu is looking like:

• asparagus and spinach quiches, cut into small pieces
  
• smoked trout, from the farmers' market, with pumpernickel rounds and dill cream cheese
• hummus with pita and a few veggies, like tomatoes & cucumbers & radishes
• Ruth Reichl dates (stuffed with cheese, wrapped with bacon, and baked)
  
• Wisconsin's state party dish, the cheese and sausage platter - so far I have got aged swiss and Gouda (also from the market, Willi Lehner), and I will probaby add some Widmar cheddar - all the cheese will be Wisconsin but I think the salami's from Califronia ...
  
• brownies, also cut into small pieces
  
• rhubarb upside down cake - I am going to use a recipe from Marion Cunningham's rewrite of the Fanny Farmer Cookbook - it is a ginger-spiced pear upside down cake, and I will use rhubarb and crystalized ginger - I am going to try to bake it at the house where the buffet will be so it will be warm.
  

There have been a couple of other occasions when my "day job" as a librarian and my avocation as a cook have intersected - I did the food for a library school alumni association fundraiser a few years ago; I am just about positive that this dinner for Alane will be a lot more fun, and less dorky. (since I am a librarian, I believe I am allowed to make jokes about how dorky we are ...)