I love a good ritual. With change being the only constant in life, rituals allow me to cling onto something special, something I can reliably look forward to even on my worst days. My Saturday morning ritual? I wake up at 5:30 AM to go to the Dane County Farmer’s Market, which is actually America’s largest producer only (you can only sell things you grew or made yourself) farmer’s market. I love seeing the vendors’ meticulous placement of fresh produce, baked goods, and colorful flowers in their respective booths. I get so much pleasure out of seeing the fruits of their labor laid out for the world to admire. They give tremendous faith to artists and dreamers like me. The second best part of getting to the Farmer’s Market early – first dibs on free samples and the freshest produce. I don’t necessarily buy into the ridiculously overpriced trend of groceries that have the word “organic” on the label, but boy, fresh fruits and vegetables straight out of the garden ALWAYS taste better.

After a nice walk through the booths around the Capitol Square, my boyfriend and I head to brunch where one of us reliably orders a Bloody Mary, part deux of the Saturday morning ritual. This weekend, I decided to combine the farmer’s market and brunch by making my own Bloody Mary from things I bought at the farmer’s market (why this hadn’t occurred to me earlier is beyond me). The result – an extremely spicy wake up call: all Blood Marys were meant to be made from scratch. Yes, you won’t always have the option or the time to do so (a can of spicy tomato juice on an airplane will usually do), but if you do, TRUST me it is so worth it. Try adding in other unique ingredients and flavors to make it your own; I added lots of Sriracha, curry powder, ginger, wasabi powder, and a dash of coconut milk.