How do you say HOORAY??

HALLIE EPHRON: I have three bottles of champagne in the fridge. Two containers of caviar. I'm waiting for a reason to celebrate, even though I routinely tell aspiring writers DON'T WAIT. Celebrate every milestone along the way!!

Because you don't want your next of kin (much as you may adore them) drinking a toast to your memory with the champagne you never broke out.

My favorite foods for celebrating are champagne or prosecco (which seems less likely to give me a headache.) Shrimp cocktail. Lobster. Caviar. Fresh mango. Grilled lamb, served rare with egg-lemon sauce. Or a steak that someone else cooks. Rare. With bernaise sauce.

What are you go-to foods to celebrate and what does it take to get you to pop the cork? Eat out or eat in? And do you get dressed up??

RHYS BOWEN: We always used to go out to celebrate but we are finding it harder and harder to get a meal as good as the one we cook ourselves. Too often we spend a lot of money and are disappointed.

Champagne and oysters are always top of the list. Also I love lobster (but won't cook that myself and actually feel guilty eating it.) Scallops, jumbo prawns when they have flavor. Lamb--rack, leg, tiny chops all fabulous. For dessert--if I'm eating out it's creme brulee. At home something that someone else has cooked, or strawberries flambe over ice cream.

I've had plenty to celebrate this week--apart from leg of lamb on Easter Sunday. I finished the first draft of the next Molly book, City of Darkness and Light, AND my Amazon rank went to #8 in mystery and thrilled and #26 overall. Of course it didn't stay there, but it was good while it lasted.

And Hallie, you'll be celebrating all next week with your fabulous new book!

HALLIE: So fantastic, Rhys! Sounds like it's time to unpack the tiaras! I'll wear one, too!!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm always looking for excuses to celebrate! I do keep champagne in the fridge, or proseco (like you, Hallie, it's less likely to give me a headache.) And like Rhys, I love champagne and oysters, but there's nowhere very convenient at home to get good fresh oysters.

Also, like Rhys, we don't do fancy restaurants much these days, as it's usually both really expensive and disappointing. Maybe I should start stocking caviar...

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Yup, I'm a prosecco girl, too! I don't usually think about celebrating with food, for some reason. (Although all your lists sound delicious and I will happily join you.)

I think about this from time to time, because I'm a saver. Oh, we'll save that champagne for...something. But if you save, the line always moves, and nothing is ever important or special enough. So for instance, we got a lot of wonderful wine from my mother's estate. My first thought was to save it for  "special occasions." But then I decided--no. We're drinking it NOW--and we do, and we toast my mother every time. 

Yes, there's a lot to celebrate. More to come!


JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Like Hallie and Debs, I love champagne now even more than I did when young, because it doesn't give me a headache. That's worth celebrating right there! When I got onto The List for the first time, Ross pulled out a beautiful chilled bottle of Dom Perignon, which we matched with take-out Greek pizza. For me, the essence of celebrating is a delightful treat you wouldn't otherwise get, which, in my case, is take-out pizza. 

The other thing we like to do as a family? Watch movies. The celebratory feeling comes from knowing you've already accomplished X, and therefore can kick back with a film and kill an evening absolutely guilt-free.

ROSEMARY HARRIS: We're a Be Here Now kind of household - and not just because my hubby was instrumental in the publication of that book. The snow has melted! Yippee! We're not sick!! Woo-hoo!! And we tend to celebrate these landmark occasions with champagne or prosecco.

There's something about that pop.. the bubbles and flutes...
On the food front...not so much. All the food I used to think of as celebratory - creme brulee, pate - I don't eat anymore. These days a big bowl of buttered popcorn could do the trick.

But I digress... to go with the bubbly, caviar or smoked salmon with capers on tiny pumpernickel bread works nicely for me.

LUCY BURDETTE: Hooray for you Rhys! such great news...and can't wait for Hallie's book to pop! I'll come to dinner at any of your places, except when you're serving lamb....

For me, it's all about the cake:). Chocolate cake, yellow cake with whipped cream and strawberries, those are the top contenders for a celebration at our house.

HALLIE: This is reminding me that guilty pleasures are another way to celebrate. Bring on the hot dogs and sauerkraut, Cheetohs and barbecued potato chips! And while we're at it, how about a chocolate malted milkshake. Once in a while, why not?

When you're celebratory, what do you do, what do you wear, and most of all, how do you toast your own good fortune?