More cooking, because there will be more eating

Tomorrow we travel south to the Norquist Family Holiday Party, where I will meet up with three of my siblings, their spouses,  and many of our offspring. It will be a houseful at my brother's home in Chehalis. 

In preparation for the gathering, Tom and I made some party food that has become traditional:  lefse and hazelnut torte.

Potato lefse is made with cold mashed potatoes, which I made yesterday, and just enough flour to hold them together.  The dough is rolled out just as thin as you can get it.

 And then it is transferred to the lefse griddle with a special stick and cooked until the bubbles brown.

 We made 20 rounds, enough for a small army.  Tomorrow we will butter it and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar,  cut it into wedges and roll the wedges up.  I'll warm it all up in a microwave before serving it.

 Tom is the torte maker.  He started the layers this morning while I went for a walk.  The scent of toasted hazelnuts and lemon rind baking is wonderful as it wafts from the oven.

This afternoon, after the lefse was finished, Tom added the whipped cream filling and frosted the torte with chocolate butter cream and then I added the piped the mocha details to finish it off.  

 This may just be my favorite dessert in the whole world.

There will be happy times again tomorrow, and happy eating too.