Homemade Holidays : An Exile in New York, a military brat, a mom who poached a tree. . .and the search for figgy pudding. ‘Tis the season to remember. With recipes. : Home Is Where the Holidays Are

In our military family, Christmas celebrations were movable feasts. Not for us the cherished spot where the Christmas tree always stood. In fact, we almost never spent two holidays in a row in the same house.

One year, we’d be in military quarters in Japan, the next in an apartment in a once-grand home in Montgomery, Ala. Or in my grandparents’ home in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Or in a ranch-style house in Albuquerque, N.M., or in a faux- Colonial tract home on one of George Washington’s old hayfields in Northern Virginia.

Our Christmas menu was just as various. There were the sensible Midwestern mainstays my mother had grown up with--roast turkey with white-bread stuffing, a cold plate of carrots, celery- and pimiento-stuffed green olives, spiced cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie (exactly the same menu as for Thanksgiving)--and sugar cookies cut in holiday shapes.

There was usually a pecan pie, which we had developed a taste for in that apartment in Montgomery, where a huge pecan tree had shaded the back yard. And the oyster dressing she’d picked up from one of her best friends, a (to us) exotic, French-speaking member of an old New Orleans family. Bizcochitos, an anise-flavored New Mexican Christmas cookie, would appear on the dessert tray fairly regularly as well.

And then there was julekake, which came from a raggedy community cookbook published by a Methodist church in Fargo, N.D., where my father had lived for a time. A Scandinavian Christmas bread, julekake is made with a shortening-enriched bread dough, raisins, that mysterious commercial candied-fruit combination (now my Mom prefers just the candied cherries) and a simple icing made of milk and powdered sugar.

A straightforward-enough recipe that she has fixed for at least 40 years, it nevertheless seems a constant source of devilment. “I don’t know,” she’ll say, slicing the loaf for Christmas breakfast, “I don’t think this batch is as good as last year’s.”

Of course, there is never anything wrong with it, and it is not at all unusual for two or three loaves to disappear between the time the grandchildren have opened the last presents and the family is called to the table for the early afternoon dinner. Wherever we might be.

JULEKAKE

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup shortening

2 cakes or envelopes yeast

5 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 eggs

10 ounces candied cherries

3/4 cup yellow raisins

1/2 cup currants

Icing

Scald milk and add sugar and shortening. Cool to lukewarm. Add yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Add 3 cups flour, beat, then add salt and eggs and beat again. Add remaining flour.

Knead well, put in oiled bowl to rise until doubled in bulk. Punch down and let rise again. Add cherries, raisins and currants as desired. Divide into greased 9x5-inchloaf pans and let rise again until doubled. Bake at 375-degrees 25 to 30 minutes, or until browned on top. Makes 2 loaves of approximately 8 servings each.

Each serving contains about:

372 calories; 298 mg sodium; 28 mg cholesterol; 5 grams fat; 77 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.58 gram fiber.

Icing

3 tablespoons milk

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon margarine

Put milk in small bowl and beat in powdered sugar until frosting is thick enough to spread. Add margarine and continue to beat several minutes until very creamy.