I avoid being overly sentimental about my dwarves. As long as they're content with what they have, I don't mind. Survival always comes first; then projects; then prettying up my fortress and making things nicer for the dorfs.
As it stands in Valefortress, though, we have over seven thousand biscuits of various kinds, most of them masterful. (The egg industry is thriving.) We have a perfectly secure fortress with vulnerabilities only to flying invaders, and precious few of those. There are literally three squares on which a flying enemy could spawn that would allow them into the base. I use exploitative caravan stuff.
On top of that, we have poison gas that drifts by every so often and clears out every wild animal and goblin. Since I don't have to worry about sieges and stuff, I've been able to experiment - made whip vine farms, wild strawberries, and even some prickle berries for some variety in my booze. The kitchens are almost always working, especially right after we have an influx of food from a caravan. Everyone can find something to eat or drink that suits their tastes.
All the bedrooms have a bed, a cabinet, a coffer, and a door. Eventually I'll upgrade, then dig out the space to be used as a battery or something.
The clothing issue is becoming a problem right now since several dwarves have tantrummed due to a lack of pants. I'm in the process of fixing that.
If I ever did want to make things particularly exciting for dorfs in my fortress, I'd go for artificial waterfalls, magma flowing under glass floors through the dining hall, dining halls with gold pavement and chairs and tables, and nice clothing for every dwarf. But there are more fun things to do, like 40-z-level magma pump stacks for moving the entire metal industry up to the main fortress level.