My mother in law made a recipe similar to this once and she called it Sunday chicken. I still haven't mastered her recipe, but I keep trying. I should probably just ask her for her recipe. But I love a good mystery haha, this one remains unsolved but I'm close.

This is a variation on one of my variations of her recipe. OK well, this is a totally different thing, hers was chicken, and i think Lebanon bologna, or dried beef, and mine is pork chops and capicola, I guess I should say, this was inspired by that recipe.

As I mentioned before sometimes the kids come in with different things for me to cook, I enjoy the challenge of figuring out what to do with the stuff they bring in. This week Traci brought home two packages of boneless pork chops, and a bag of potatoes and Chris brought home some capicola deli meat. So that, and a fond memory of my mother in law's "Sunday chicken", are to bless or to blame for this recipe.

I have had capicola on my sandwiches from sub shops before, but other than that I didn't know much about the stuff. Here is what I have learned..

Now that I have imparted some new found knowledge on you, let me tell you my capicola story.  I m a midnight snacker, If there is deli meat in the house and I go for that in the middle of the night half asleep depending on my level of wakeful-ness (is that a word?) I may wrap it around a pickle, or roll it up with a slice of cheese, or just eat a slice or two of deli meat by itself. This night I chose to eat just a plain old slice of capicola, knowing nothing about the stuff. I get up go potty, wash the hands grad a slice of capicola and eat it on the way back to bed, stuffing the last bite into my mouth as I crawled across the sleeping hubby and got back into my place in the bed. It was yummy, Chris was right to bring this stuff home, and I don't know if the heat normally has a delayed affect or if it was my groggy brain that slowed the signal from my brain to my mouth, but I was nestled in and it hit me, That shit was HOT!!!! Now I could have gotten up and got a glass of milk or some other thing to cool my mouth but it was 3am and I had already been up to potty twice in the night rousing poor sleeping hubby who had to get up at 5 for work, and he already has such a hard time getting up. I opted to wait it out and I promise i will never eat capicola by itself again.

It isn't so spicy that you couldn't eat it with bread and cheese and condiments and be fine, I think the combo of ingredients tame it. But unless you like spicy things never eat it solo.

So lets get down to the business of the recipes

The baked potato is fairly simple

(I cooked 6 but you can cook as many or as few as you want)

6 potatoes (I like Yukon gold potatoes)

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp bacon grease

coarsely ground salt

wash potatoes well

mix olive oil and bacon grease together and smear all over potato skins, puncture with knife or fork several times on top and bottom

sprinkle salt all over potatoes skins

bake in a 425 degree oven for 1 hour turning once

***notes***

• you do not have to use this combo of oil, you can use olive oil, coconut oil, veggie oil, shortening, butter, whatever you like, this is just what i chose to use because i enjoy the skin as well as the potato
• cooking time may vary depending on the size of your potato, the best way to determine if it is done is to stick it with a knife or fork, when your knife goes all the way through to the center with no resistance your potatoes are done.

8 boneless pork chops

approx 9 slices capicola deli meat

1/2 cup sour cream

1 can Campbell's cream of mushroom soup

1 can milk (the Campbell's soup can)

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1/4 cup chopped chives

salt (to taste)

pepper (to taste)

garlic (to taste)

cooking spray

layer the bottom of your greased baking dish with capicola slices

place pork chops on top of capicola slices

in bowl mix all other ingredients well and pour evenly over pork chops

sprinkle chopped chives over everything

cover with tin foil

bake in a 350 oven for 2 hours

***notes***

• This recipe could easily be made in a slow cooker or crock pot as well, follow all instructions but put in a crock pot for 4 hours
• I have made this recipe using dried beef, and also Lebanon bologna and both are awesome variations
• the next time i make this recipe I will probably wrap my chops in bacon
• This recipe will work with cream of celery, or broccoli soup, or other cream of something soup.. I don't think Id try it with cream of chicken, but you could..
• This recipe works with chicken also same recipe just substitute chops for chicken
• I served mine with baked potatoes and spooned the gravy over the baked potatoes and sprinkled with cheese, but you could use rice, noodles, or mashed potatoes if you preferred.