Asking a cook to pick out favorite recipes is an impossible request, like asking a mother to single out her favorite child. Our recipes, they're food bloggers' 'babies' and we love them all! Still, every year, a fresh round of "best recipes of 2008" posts crop up, helping our readers focus on the best of the best.

Early Dieters Take Note: No surprise, many of our favorite recipes are sweets. Be sure to build up will power before perusing these best-recipe lists!

Kalyn's Kitchen "... these dishes are my very favorites; things I would happily eat over and over."

Jersey Bites "... there was a lot of cooking in the kitchen this year; some good, some great, and some, well, downright pathetic experiments. Let's explore the best of the best, shall we?"

The Recipe Girl "A rule I live by is 'Why repeat a recipe? You've already had that!'... just about everything I end up making and blogging about is from a recipe I've never tried before. Scouring old food magazines and cookbooks, as well as trying new & unique ingredients keep cooking interesting and fun."

Everybody Likes Sandwiches "These are my some of my favorite recipes from last year and most have been made again and again. They're that good."

Divine Domesticity "Funny how my favorite and most delicious recipes are usually the easiest to make."

Picky Cook "... it was difficult to pick only 9 (in honor of 2009) - and trust me when i say i could have easily picked them all."

Cafe Johnsonia "I love blogging because it’s so interactive and the content is always fresh. But I sometimes get sad because I know old posts on my blog get buried and never seen again. So, in case you missed it, here are my favorite recipes!"

A Mighty Appetite "This year's recipe discoveries were many and varied. Here are some of my new favorites ..."

A Slice of Cherry Pie "But before I start looking forward I thought I'd take one last glance over my shoulder at the year that was, culinary speaking."

Appetite for China "Which posts got the most readers in 2008, that were Stumbled Upon, commented on, and (hopefully) bookmarked for repeated future visits?"

Champaign Taste "I've put together a list of my favorite posts from the year we have just said goodbye to."

Sass & Veracity "In the mean time, here's the sifting I've done for 2008 in all things related to food. As I scan the list, I guess this means I'm a baker more than anything else. Interesting, because I prefer savory cooking much, much more. "

Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy "Now, what would a New Year's post be without a "Best of" list? Obviously, I love most of the food I post about, or else I wouldn't bother. That said, I do have my favorites. Here are my picks for the Best of 2008."

A Spoonful of Sugar "I’ve been reminiscing about the best bits of 2008 and above is a (slightly messy) collage of my favourite recipes ..."

Simply Cooking "It’s that time for reflection, and one thing I like to do is look back at all the new recipes I cooked throughout the year and single out those that were really outstanding and should enter the regular rotation."

Spicy Ice Cream "I thought I would share some of my favourite recipes from 2008, the ones that really made me say yum."

The Way The Cookie Crumbles "I scanned through my posts from 2008 and managed to narrow it down to about fifty favorites. Then Dave told me that I should choose just ten to recommend. Ten?! Ten?! I was barely about to get it to fifty!"

Twitter Links
NOTE: Every so often, my fellow BlogHer editor Kalyn Denny and I do a call for links via Twitter. This is a great way to share a favorite recipe here on BlogHer. (And bloggers, you know the value of a link from a high-pagerank site, right? That too!) Follow me via Kitchen Parade on Twitter and Kalyn via Kalyn's Kitchen on Twitter.

Vegan Visitor ~ Best Vegan Visitor Recipes of 2008

And you?
And you, have you posted a short list of your favorite recipes from 2008? Leave a link in the comments!

BlogHer food editor Alanna Kellogg managed to choose just one recipe per month for her Best Recipes of 2008.