A #MoviesandMunchies Round-Up + Messy Jacks for Paul Blart

I was inspired to post these for our November Movies & Munchies online movie group. I am also hosting and invited the group to watch either Paul Blart: Mall Cop or its sequel Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.

A #MoviesandMunchies Round-Up

photos, left to right, courtesy of Wendy, Debra, and Amy

Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm baked Oatmeal Kiss Cookies. Wendy didn't think the second movie was as good as the first, but was still inspired into the kitchen. "Oatmeal is mentioned a couple of times and one of the bad guys has a bad allergic reaction after eating some oatmeal. Paul has to have sweets or sugar regularly or he passes out, he also uses the foil from a Hershey kiss to get his segway to start. This was the inspiration for the cookies I am sharing today."

Debra of Eliot's Eats offered her Sour Cream Apple Pie with Walnut Streusel. She also muses nostalgic about 80s comedies and I have to agree with her assessment "Apparently comedies were just better then OR we were just young and dumb. (Notice I’m not submitting the age we were when we watched these movies for the first time. Suffice it to say that we were young and impressionable.) In our household, comedy ended apparently in 1987." She made this pie for Thanksgiving and I wish I were at her table!

Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures baked a Peanut Butter Cake (LEGO Cake). She commented that "[it] is a goofy comedy that we watched with my boys. We were laughing out loud several times! ...[Then] I was inspired by the Black Friday theme and a peanut butter scene (Paul slathers peanut butter on what looks to be a cherry pie), then I decided to use my resources and go with a repost." I loved that scene and line: Peanut butter fills the cracks in the heart!

Thanks to these ladies for joining in for my November Movies & Munchies event. Now here is my offering for the month...

On the Screen

image from Amazon.com

I'll start with this: I don't really have a robust sense of humor. So, I have never seen Paul Blart: Mall Cop or its sequel. I decided to watch the first one. Eponymous Paul Blart, played by Kevin James, dreams of becoming a police officer, but he has consistently failed the exams and is relegated to being a cop at the mall! He patrols the mall on a segway and is only one little sugar packet away from falling into a hypoglycemic event.

Most of the movie takes place on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the busiest shopping day of the year. Blart is hungover after he chugged a pitcher of what he thought were virgin margaritas and he is playing video games in the arcade when a band of thieves locks down the mall. Their scheme is to steal credit card numbers or something. It wasn't totally clear to me.

The quickly devolves into a hostage situation, including Blart's daughter who has come to the mall to deliver Sloppy Joe's to her dad for dinner. What follows is a silly game of cat and mouse between Blart and the bandits.

On the Plate

I was inspired by Blart's daughter bringing Sloppy Joes to her dad. Now the reason for my title is my eldest son. R was always more interested in communicating his thoughts than actually knowing the names of things. Examples: he didn't know Minnie Mouse's name the first time he went to Disneyland with my parents, so he just called her 'the girl Mickey.' We once attended a wedding and he didn't know the word for a flower girl; he called her 'the mini bride.' And, the first time I made Sloppy Joes, he loved them. He just couldn't remember their name. When he requested them, next, he called them Messy Jacks. The name stuck!

So, when my boys were home for their Thanksgiving break, I made Messy Jacks.

Ingredients

4 servings

• 1 cup diced onions

• 1 cup diced bell pepper (I used a yellow one)

• 3 to 4 garlic cloves, peeled and pressed

• 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

• 2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar

• 2 cups tomato sauce

• 1 pound ground beef (prefer grass fed)

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil

• salt and pepper to taste

• liquid (water or wine), as needed

• Also needed: 4 brioche hamburger buns

Procedure

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add in the onions and bell pepper. Cook until onions are softened an translucent. Stir in the garlic and crumble in the beef. Cook until fully browned, breaking up the pieces with a wooden spoon. Add in the Worcestershire sauce, mustard, brown sugar, and tomato sauce. Stir to coat everything completely. Pour in 1/4 cup of water or wine and simmer to desired consistency.

To serve, spoon onto toasted brioche buns. Serve immediately with chips and beer!

That's a wrap on the November #MoviesandMunchies. We'll be back next month as we watch Madagascar with Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures at the lead. That was one of my kids' favorites. I can't wait to watch it again with foodie goggles on.