Tomato and Corn Chipotle Salsa with a Meyer Lemon Tom Collins

This Tomato and Corn Chipotle Salsa is so easy to make and is perfect as a cocktail hour appetizer at the end of a hot summer day. The salsa is both smoky and spicy, and is wonderful with barbecue or carne asada.

I usually keep a can or two of chipotles in adobo sauce on hand because it is so tasty. I dump the entire can (it's a small can) into a mini food processor and keep the stuff in the fridge to add to quesadillas, beans, tacos, burritos, and scrambled eggs. The mixture also adds a wonderful smokiness to guacamole.

Since it's cocktail hour on a hot summer day, I chose this refreshing Meyer Lemon Tom Collins to go with the salsa. It helps that we have a raggedy Meyer lemon tree that is always (as in year round) loaded (to the point that I could sell them at a farmers market) with a super sized version of the fruit.

This cocktail is refreshing and thirst quenching, and not at all like the sticky sweet concoction made with Collins mixer. It's typically served in a highball glass, which I do not have (oooh, time to go shopping!), so I served these in water goblets.

Save the zest from the lemons to make shortbread cookies!

I found both of these recipes on the wonderful blog, K & K Test Kitchen, my assigned blog for this month's Secret Recipe Club. The blog is a collaboration by Kim and Kelsey, a mom and daughter team. How cool is that? I decided to make two of their recipes because there are two of them!

I have bookmarked their Tortilla soup, Corn Fritters and BLT Salad, and their French Dip, among many of their amazing recipes. I finally settled on this cocktail and appetizer to go with our warm summer evenings. 

Note: Kim and Kelsey are no longer publishing so I have removed the links. 

Tomato and Corn Chipotle Salsa

Adapted from K&K Test Kitchen

Ingredients

1 C diced Roma tomatoes

3/4 C whole corn kernels (original recipe calls for 1/2 C)

2 chipotles in adobo, minced

1 T adobo sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

juice of 1/2 lime

freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Serve immediately or refrigerate for later.

Meyer Lemon Tom Collins

Makes 2 cocktails

Ingredients

3 ounces gin

3 ounces juice from Meyer lemons

2 tsp sugar

ice 

Chilled club soda

Two Meyer lemon slices

Instructions

1. Combine the gin, lemon juice, and sugar in a small measuring cup and stir until the sugar has dissolved. 
2. Fill two highball glasses with ice. 
3. Divide the gin/lemon/sugar mixture between the two glasses and fill each glass with the club soda. 
4. Garnish with lemon slices. 

Cheers to summer!

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