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A simple and classic spice cake made for a friend’s birthday, photographed on Oct. 21, 2020, in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)

Life

A simple spice cake for a pared-down Thanksgiving

I know Thanksgiving this year won’t be the same.

Will Morrow (courtesy)

Life

Getting old is hard to do

Based on the survey questions, I’ve apparently been old for a while now

Several pages from David Brame's "After the Rain," adapted from Nnedi Okorafor’s short story “On the Road.” (Photo courtesy David Brame)

Life

New Homer creator brings Afrofuturism to town

David Brame’s new graphic novel will be published in January

Essential ingredients for my family’s lemon cake recipe, photographed on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)

Life

Kalifornsky Kitchen: Great-grandma’s lemon cake

It’s not much, but it’s also everything.

Nick Varney

Life

Unhinged Alaska: A guide to the seasons

Figuring out the signs of seasonal change is easy, right?

Friends of Elmer Gaede effect repairs to the doctor’s Maule Rocket airplane, which crashed a short distance from Forest Lane between Soldotna and Sterling on Aug. 2, 1967. The airplane was eventually made “fly-able” again and was sold in the early 1970s. (Photo courtesy of the Gaede Collection)

Life

Dr. Gaede drops in, Part 2

By Clark Fair

A match latte is on display on Jan. 3, 2019 at Brother’s Cafe, in Kenai, Alaska.

Life

Kalifornsky Kitchen: Something warm please

I’m normally not a warm drink person.

A row of dyed silk wall hangings shows how common Alaska plants found on the lower Kenai Peninsula can be used to make organic dyes, as seen here Tuesday. The hangings are included in Elissa Pettibone’s exhibit, “Swatches,” showing at Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer. Michael Armstrong / Homer News

Life

‘Swatches’ explores art of organic dyeing using native plants

Pettibone finds magic in fireweed, other common plants

Dr. Elmer Gaede relaxes at home a few weeks after his airplane crash. His facial hair and glasses hide much of his scarring. (Photo courtesy of the Gaede Collection)

Life

Dr. Gaede drops in, Part 1

Part 1 of a three-part story of a single-engine airplane crash more than a half-century ago.

Pepperoni pizza is ready to go into the oven, on Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)

Life

Kalifornsky Kitchen: Election night pizza

It’s a time-honored tradition to have pizza in the newsroom on election night.

Virginia Walters (Courtesy photo)

Life

Life in the Pedestrian Lane: The race is on

Here we are 33 weeks later wondering how we are going to celebrate the grandest time of the…

Will Morrow (courtesy)

Life

Keeping myself in stitches

The pandemic hit, and we all brushed off some skills we hadn’t thought about in a while.

A homemade nut mix takes on a sticky, spicy finish with a recipe from Anthony Bourdain, on Friday, Oct. 23 in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion.)

Life

Kalifornsky Kitchen: I’m going nuts

I’m enjoying the nuts while I work from home and occasionally daydream about the international travel

Nick VarneyNick Varney

Life

Unhinged Alaska: 2020 — The Halloween Year

2020 has nixed Oct. 31 as the official observance of Halloween and hijacked the mantle as its own.

Some of the 45 art quilts featured in “Shifting Tides: Cloth in Convergence,” on exhibit from Oct. 9 to Nov. 28, 2020, at the Pratt Museum in Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Michael Armstrong/Homer News)

Life

Traveling show at Pratt features Alaska, Pacific Rim artists

‘Shifting Tides’ traveling quilt show explores theme of Pacific Ocean connection

Spice up fall with a homemade mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)

Life

Kalifornsky Kitchen: Pumpkin spice — no Starbucks necessary

Make your own fall spice mix

In 1964, two years after the Fairs moved to their homestead at the end of Forest Lane, Calvin Fair took this photo from neighbor Dan France’s SuperCub. Note the dearth of large trees in the foreground, where the 1947 Kenai Burn wiped out much of the hillside forest. (Courtesy Fair Family Collection.

Life

One man’s misfortune becomes my family’s good fortune

Without his misfortune, almost everything changes for me.

Snickerdoodle cookies have a distinct cinnamon sugar scrawled shell, photographed on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020, in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)

Life

Kalifornsky Kitchen: Memories of snickerdoodles

I asked my grandma if she had her mother’s snickerdoodle recipe.

Russell Wagner graduated from the dental school within the College of Physicians and Surgeons in San Francisco in the spring of 1931. Shortly thereafter, he made his first trip to Seward. (Photo courtesy of college archives)

Life

When the Kenai had just one full-time Dentist, Part 2

Part One discussed how Dr. Russell Wagner, the Kenai Peninsula’s only full-time dentist in 1960.

Christina Whiting poses for a photo on Oct. 5, 2020, in Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Taz Tally)

Life

Homer artist takes pandemic project on road

‘Behind the Mask - Our Stories’ invites people to share experiences