We don't have any family around - it's just me and my son, who is a great cook. When he asks what I want for special occasions I always say black bean burgers and sweet potato fries. He makes the burgers using canned black beans (and other stuff) and they are delicious. (I don't eat meat.) We have this for Christmas dinner too! Another of my favorites that he cooks is risotto with buttnernut squash. On his special days, I take him out.

I agree with Stitchnripper. My special occasion meal is any one I don't have to cook! For Mother's Day it was steak kabobs and strawberry shortcake. Since we've been on a mostly meatless diet for a few months, that was a treat.

When I was young and still at home, my favorite meal out was shrimp cocktail, filet mignon, and New York cheesecake. My Dad would always jokingly say, "I think you just look at the most expensive menu items!". I still like that but would add a spinach salad and a twice baked potato and maybe carrot cake instead. But, like a lot of people, any meal I don't have to cook is the best. The best gift my DH gave me was to cook every other night once he retired. It has been fabulous and he has gotten very good at it too.

Filet of Mallard cooked in mushroom soup with wild rice, onion rings and a side of green beans, french bread with plenty of butter and garlic salt. That was when I was a kid at home and Dad was a hunter.

I love food but it's the people that share it with me that I appreciate the most. I also enjoy meals for one, when I can think of the people that are or were a part of my life, both living and not.

Fifty-ish years ago we had our 1st date at this little Italian restaurant downtown. So that’s where we go when it’s a special occasion. Our anniversary is today so that’s where we’re headed later. The food tastes pretty much the samd as it did back then, which is great because it’s changed hands.

if it’s a special meal I make at home, it would most likely be something involving steak.

We can grill steak at home so we don’t go out for that very often. VFW makes the very best hamburgers & fries. I don’t make stir fry at home so we go out for that but not often because it’s sodium overload. Christmas was prime rib but the girls added to the family just pick & waste so much so ... DH says no more.

My favorite go to special occasion meal is pork roast with all the trimmings! On Mother's Day or when it's my birthday, I either ask for lamb or shrimp and grits, My DH makes both better than most restaurants!!
On his special days, he always asks me to make scalloped potatoes with ham.

I have so many special meals that it's hard to pick just one. If I am cooking it is my chicken and noodles - but no one else wants to do it for fear of messing it up. (Which I can understand, I wouldn't have fixed it for my mother either - hers was the best!) But my DH and kids were cooking so it was carne asada with our macaroni /shrimp salad, and potato salad (which I made the day before because it always tastes better the second day).

We love to go out to eat but not on Mother's Day, Valentines Day, or any holiday. Those are days to be together at home with family. (It can be any member's home - it just needs to be at a home.)