Dinner and a Movie with the Moons

The Moons are back with a new segment: “Dinner and a Movie with the Moons!” As Haley and I do dinner and movie date nights at home, we will share our recipes and movie reviews. These will be simple meals you can actually prepare in your own home, unlike those seen on cooking shows that require you to take out a small loan to afford ingredients, three years of culinary school, and a pantry the size of our kitchen. After our meal, we will sit down to enjoy a movie. The movies may be a new hit we’ve haven’t seen or an old movie we’re watching for the 10th time. Either way, we will share our thoughts here.

CHICKEN WINGS

Our first meal will be chicken wings with the only BBQ sauce allowed in the Moon household: Dead Eye.

Ingredients:

Prepackaged 20 chicken wings from your local Hy-Vee
2 tbsp flour
1 cup Dead Eye BBQ Sauce, any flavor (we used Medium Mango – highly recommend)

Instructions:

If frozen, thaw the chicken wings and place in a large mixing bowl. Pat down with a paper towel, so they are dry. Add 2 tablespoons of flour to the wings in the large mixing bowl and mix to evenly distribute the flour.

Place the chicken wings into an air fryer and set the timer for 15 minutes. (You can also place them on a cookie sheet in the oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes).

When the wings are five minutes from being ready, place 1 cup of Dead Eye BBQ sauce into a skillet and set the stovetop to low heat to warm the sauce.

Once the wings are done cooking (165 degrees per food safety rules), place the chicken wings into the heated BBQ sauce and stir to evenly coat the sauce onto the wings.

When you feel like enough sauce has been applied to the wings, grab your favorite Iowa-inspired ranch and dig in. Serve with carrot sticks and celery.

After you have finished dinner, we encourage you to wash your BBQ sauced fingers and turn on the movie Parasite.

PARASITE

(Spoiler Free Review)

Ryan: The movie begins with an impoverished family living in the slums of South Korea. They fold pizza boxes and steal wifi from their neighbors to make ends meet. At night, they make sure the drunks don’t pee through their open windows. One thing you notice about this family is how clever they truly are and how they all seem to be on the same page. However, their cleverness soon turns into manipulation as they try to gain employment for a very wealthy family. With about 40 minutes left in the movie, I was at the point of “this movie is really good, but how is it Best Picture good?” Then, the movie takes that Best Picture turn and flips upside down. Suddenly, your heart starts racing and doesn’t stop until the credits. This movie taught me a lot about life. For instance, even if you think you have a plan, God or the wealthy upper-class has a better plan.

Ryan’s one Gif to describe Parasite:

Haley: Before sitting down to watch Parasite, I could count on one hand the things I knew about it. I wasn’t familiar with the director, I didn’t know any of the actors, and I had never even seen a trailer. All I knew was 1) It was entirely in Korean, 2) it was about a poor family who goes to work for a rich family, and 3) it was supposedly very good. The first two were true (duh), and the third ended up being an understatement.

The story begins with the poverty-stricken Kim family, a close-knit unit made up of a mother (Chung-sook), father (Ti-taek), and two young-adult kids (Ki-woo and Ki-jung). When an opportunity arises for Ki-woo to work as an English tutor for the wealthy Park family, he tricks them into believing he is an accomplished university student and begins tutoring their teenage daughter. After spending time with the Parks in their chic mansion, it becomes clear that this job, or rather the naivety of the Parks, is an opportunity for his entire family to find work… and for the con to spiral out of control.

This movie made me laugh, made me think, made me audibly gasp, and took turns I never could have anticipated. Not only is it a thoroughly entertaining movie to watch, but I still find myself ruminating on the symbolism and perspective of the film. Who are the real parasites? Watch and decide for yourself.

Haley’s one Gif to describe Parasite: