Easy Ham Glaze

Coffeeshop food, Part 2: Street 14 Coffee

1410 Commercial St., Astoria • (503) 325-5511

Hours:  6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays (open mic night, art walk), 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.

Prices:  Affordable breakfast and lunch prices. Nothing over $10.

Vegetarian options:  Plenty. Soups and specials vary.

Drinks:  Besides the espresso menu, Street 14 offers fruit smoothies, iced teas, lemonades, Italian sodas and now a limited beer and wine selection.

Being once again within the hallowed walls of 1410 Commercial St. evokes long-since-dimmed memories of a very different space. Many of you remember Chris' News, as it inhabited the corner of 14th and Commercial streets for roughly 65 years. I remember Chris' News as a peek into a forbidden adult world, one with cool Zippo lighters, sweet-smelling pipe tobacco, Ripple , glossy magazines on a high shelf far from a young boy's reach. The men who worked there didn't suffer children with a smile, no matter how many issues of Mad Magazine I loyally purchased there over the years. It was a place with an indescribable charm, and it's gone forever.

Now, as Street 14 Coffee, it's got another kind of charm that, while completely different and incomparable to the periodical peddler and tobacconist of old, is undeniable in its calculated retro feel. The interior looks as if it could have been transplanted (like the Water Avenue Coffee Company beans served there) from a hip Portland neighborhood, and some of the random eclecticities certainly look like hipster bait.

But this, I suppose, is part of Astoria's evolution. We should be thankful that so many dowdy old structures like the Lewis Building are being renovated into businesses like Street 14 and the modern-style Commodore Hotel upstairs.

The menu has an eclectic feel to match the décor. Besides the usual coffeehouse suspects – pastries, scones, cookies – Street 14 offers grilled panini, several soups daily, breakfast items, salads and tapas. There are plenty of seats in the house, and when weather is nice, you can also dine "al fresco."

The sandwiches are made with nice wide, thick slices of bread. We enjoyed the Street Fourteen ($7.95), a grilled ham and Swiss sandwich with a perfectly over-easy egg on top, but were baffled by the distracting sweet glaze on the bread. A tuna melt ($8.95) was grilled crispy, with plenty of the Swiss and cheddar cheeses melted out and cooked to a crunchy chip protruding from the bottom of the bread. I love it when that happens. A pita pocket sandwich ($7.95) filled with turkey, celery, lettuce and sweet cranberry was a bit watery and everything seemed chopped into one unintelligible mass. My guests enjoyed the crunch and freshness, so it's a meal that simply needs the right audience. A veggie hummus wrap ($7.95) with spinach, cucumber, avocado, tomato, red onion, hummus and sunflower seeds was unwieldy, messy and not worth the trouble of handling. Vegans, however, are used to this sort of mess, and should be glad to get it.

8 Easy Glaze Recipes for Easter Ham!

Glazing a ham can definitely turn it from simple to special. For starters, a glaze is any combination of ingredients that is brushed or slathered on the meat to enhance its flavor. If you google ham glazes you will get 256,000 results, so here is the short list. My rule for a good glaze is no more then 5 ingredients. I like to keep it simple and let the flavors in the glaze come through to enhance the ham not overpower it. I also prefer to glaze the ham during the entire cooking time (like basting a turkey) rather than glazing at high heat the last 20-30 minutes. Hope you enjoy!

If you have one of your own glaze recipes that rocks, please share it here. I would love to try it.

Honey and Brown Sugar Ham Glaze

2/3 cup Brown Sugar 3 tbsp Honey 1 tbsp Prepared Mustard

Orange Glaze

1 cup Orange Juice 3/4 cup Brown Sugar 1 tbsp Dijon Mustard 1/2 cup Honey 2 tsp Soy Sauce

Baked Ham Maple Glaze

1 tbsp Mustard 2/3 cup Real Maple Syrup

Brown Sugar Glaze

1½ cups Brown Sugar 1½ tsp Dry Mustard Powder 3/4 tsp Ground Cloves

Marmalade Glaze

1/4 cup Orange Marmalade 1/2 tsp Dry Mustard 1/2 cup Brown Sugar 1 tbsp Flour Pineapple Juice (enough to create a thick paste)

Pineapple Glaze

1½ tsp Dry Mustard 1½ cups Brown Sugar 3/4 cup Crushed Pineapple, well drained

Chinese Glaze Recipe by Sophia Young

1/2 cup hoisin sauce 1/4 cup honey 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder 1 finely chopped garlic clove 1 tsp finely grated ginger

Ginger Glaze

1 tsp Dry Ginger 1 tsp Dry Mustard 1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar Canned Pear or Peach Syrup (to make thick paste) 1 tsp Lemon Juice

Instructions (For All Recipes)

First of all, you need to make a slit in the rind of the ham. Trim the rind and fat at the same time, leaving 1/4 inch layer of fat on ham. Make diagonal cuts along the surface of the ham, on the fat layer, making sure not to penetrate the meat. Now, make diagonal cuts in the opposite direction, forming diamond shapes in the fat layer. Take a bowl and put all the ingredients in it (this works for all the above mentioned recipes) Mix the ingredients well and brush over the ham. As the ham cooks, occasionally brush it with the extra glaze . This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. Compensation received that may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

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