Posted over at Tales Blog!

Or, how to enjoy the event your partner dragged you to, swearing: “it’s a lot of fun!” Except you didn’t envision spending all day in classes called “Create the Perfectly Shaped Ice Cube” or “History of the Straw.” But you might as well make the most of your Tales time so here are a few tips from an experienced Tales widow:

1. Take a few seminars
I know, I know, you’re sick of hearing about cocktails and cocktail recipes and watching your bank account dwindle on account of those bottles of Wild Antarctica Meadowlark Liqueur your partner just had to have. But give the seminars a chance; there are lots of interesting topics covered – history, sociology, and even some “science.” You might learn something and you’ll be able to figure out what the heck your partner is on about all the time. Plus, being in seminars will help you:

2. Meet people
Sitting at long tables, half listening to a lecture while slightly drunk - just like being back in college! Except now your cocktail is right there on the table instead of hidden in your Big Gulp cup. Get to know the people around you, I promise you they are nice. Even if they aren’t, a lot of them are bartenders so they are experts at pretending to be nice. Make some friends!

3. Hang out in the Carousel Bar and the Hotel Monteleone Lobby
You are bound to run into people you’ve met in your seminars. See where they are going to for lunch/dinner/liquor company sponsored cocktails. Before you know it, you’ll have a group of friends to roam the town with. You’ll find out about secret events (most of them free!), get to know even more people who love liquor and make friends in far off cities. These new friends will be very handy when you’re traveling, as they know all the best bars. Some of your new friends might even be famous in the Internet!

4. The Pool
The Hotel Monteleone has a nice rooftop pool, and a poolside bar. Need I say more? Protip: it’s a great place to meet the cocktailia elite. Plus, it’s 94F and 98% humidity, what better place is there?

5. Respect the Cocktail
Tales is an event for the cocktail community – mixologists, bartenders, chefs, writers – and you’re a guest here. This is their party, where they have gathered to celebrate the love of drink making, in ways both serious and silly. It’s their Star Trek convention, so don’t be the person yelling “Vulcans are stupid!” You’re a visitor: be polite and respectful, keeping in mind that many of these people have worked very hard over the years to bring you the highest quality of food and drink. So don’t be down on their Klingon costumes (metaphorically speaking). Embrace the spirit of the event!

Bonus Tip for Non-Drinkers (Both of you):
6. Eat
It’s Tales of the Cocktail, sure, but it’s also New Orleans, home of some of the most amazing food on earth. I was four months pregnant at TotC 2008 (yes, bad planning) so cocktails were out but I managed to have a fantastic and memorable time nonetheless. All the calories you aren’t consuming in liquor can easily by made up by po’boys, the entire menu at Luke, Coop’s jambalaya, beignets by the pound and whatever and wherever else Chuck tells you to eat. Bonus: being the sober one means you‘ll not only remember the foolishness, but you’ll be steady enough to catch it on camera. Those pictures will come in handy for blackmail later.

I’m MxMoing! This isn’t a real cocktail blog (making of, plenty about drinking) and I’ve never participated in MxMo before, but I was strangely inspired this month by RumDood and ginger. I’m a fine drink maker, I think (in normal people’s company I’m fantastic!) but I leave the mixologisting to Craig. My real love is preserving – pickles, jam, whatever I can put into a jar. I thought I’d up the usual cocktail blogger penchant for requiring a complicated homemade ingredient (you know, make your own cola to make a Jack & Coke) and use proper homemade jam in a cocktail.

I have to first tell you I am a preserving snob: freezer jam is useless, refrigerator pickles can suck it. If it can’t sit in your pantry, I don’t see the point of preserving – you might as well freeze it. I’m also hopeless when it comes to following a recipe - I simply must improvise something. I had been carrying around this recipe for May Day Jam (rhubarb, strawberry and pineapple) for a while and one day I was inspired to make it. After I’d chopped up the strawberries and rhubarb, I looked around for the pineapple. But it had disappeared (into a tiki drink no doubt). No matter! We had a strangely large quantity of fresh ginger (falernum week), so I chopped up a mess of that and added it. The jam came out gorgeous pink and wonderfully gingery. It was the first thing I thought of when I heard the MxMo theme.

The cocktail is based (loosely) off of a 1930 Savoy recipe - Pink Baby Cocktail. Craig and I collaborated a new drink which he named the “Pinko Cocktail.”

Pinko Cocktail
an egg white
3/4 oz lemon juice
1.5 oz gin (we used Bols Genever)
1 heaping barspoon June Ginger Jam (recipe follows)
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Combine egg white and lemon juice, dry shake (or froth with frother). Add gin, jam and bitters and shake with ice. Double strain into a Charles cocktail glass.

June Ginger Jam
It goes without saying this is only to be made when strawberries are in season. I had to say it anyway.
2 cups diced fresh rhubarb
2 cups whole strawberries, washed and hulled
A good knob fresh ginger, peeled and diced fine.
4 cups sugar
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon (hold onto that until the end)
Combine all except lemon juice and let stand 15 minutes. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring frequently, until jam thickens (15-30 minutes). Boil gently (watch out, hot jam is like napalm!) for 5 minutes, then add lemon juice. Laddle into hot, sterilized jars and process 10 minutes in water bath.

Let sit in a jars a couple of weeks to allow the flavor to develop. Enjoy on toast, pb&js or in cocktails!