Friday Favorites – Episode 23

This week’s Friday Favorites have a definite theme – baking.  And honestly, what’s wrong with that?

I apologize to those of you who may be on a diet or watching what you eat.  However, I am a firm believer in eating what you want – in moderation.  While I am definitely not a runway model, I must say that the “eat what I want” philosophy has worked much better than many of the diets that I have tried!  Anyway, I recently read Bethenny Frankel’s book Naturally Thin, and it made a lot of sense to me (and has really worked, too). Pardon my rant… This would be better suited for a Favorite Books post, but has very little to do with this week’s Friday Favorites.

So, as I was saying, this week’s theme is baking. I am going to picnic on Sunday and offered to bring a dessert, so I have been on the lookout for desserts all week. I must say, there were quite a few great dessert posts to choose from. These were my favorites:

• The first baked good on the list is Chocolate Zucchini Bread from Our Best Bites. I will be making this tomorrow morning, but I don’t plan on taking it to the picnic.  The recipe makes two loaves, so I will keep one loaf for my hubby and I and take one for my parents, who we are meeting for dinner tomorrow evening.
• I think these Better-Than-Brownie Chocolate Cookies from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures are the winning recipe for the picnic. I had considered making brownies, but I think these will be even better. I’m thinking of substituting peanut butter chips for the chocolate chips in the recipe.
• I absolutely had to include this Apple Crisp recipe from Honey & Jam because I, too, can barely wait for fall to arrive.  I think if fall had an official dessert, it would be apple crisp – a la mode.  I will be keeping my eyes open for local apples to make this one ASAP!
• Finally, no list of dessert recipes would be complete without some cannoli. I came across this Cannoli recipe from Foodology today and bookmarked it instantly. I adore cannoli, and have been meaning to make some for quite a while.  I think this post is just the inspiration that I need.  I am going to make it very soon.  It will hold me over until our trip to Boston this fall!