I have never been sure why an Irish-Catholic family decided to have a classic British Christmas feast, but that is my family's tradition.
Perhaps its because my father HATED turkey, perhaps Mom just wanted a change.
All I know is that for as long as I can remember, we have had a beef eye round roast, popovers, mashed potatoes, plum pudding complete with brandy hard sauce even for us littles, and when my mom was the cook, lots of slightly overcooked vegetables.
So now we are gluten free and I wanted to keep up the traditions, well, except for the overcooked veggies.
The beef roast was not a problem. One of the roasts created from our gift of a side of grass fed beef was a standing rib roast.
Mashed potatoes are blissfully gluten free naturally. Thank goodness, our family seems to be able to digest the butter and milk they need to be scrumptious.
But the popovers, what to do about them? Ethereal, crisp little sprites waiting to be filled with gravy.

How?
I had the cast iron muffin pan, my mom made sure all six of us got one of those in our house trousseau.
So at least I had that lead on creating them, but what about the batter?
When in doubt 'round my house, I reached for my trusty 1946 edition of The Joy of Cooking.
Another gift from mom, we kids (all six of us) each left the house as teens or young adults with a copy in tow. My mom didn't like any of the changes made by Ms. Becker when she started to "help" her mom out. So we all have Mrs. Rombauer only vintages.
For an...