For those that came of age in the late eighties and early nineties, Dirty Dancing was a sleepover staple as essential as popcorn, Heartthrob (the boardgame), and a phone ready for making prank calls. There was the preteen daydream plotline wherein awkward you is swept off your feet by an older guy. There was the killer soundtrack. There was the wardrobe you longed to emulate (White Keds, jean cut-offs, floaty party dresses). And there was, of course, Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle—yes, looking back now, he does seem a little smarmy, but, oh, at the time there was no one dreamier. Now many will say the movie’s signature line is “no one puts Baby in a corner” which Johnny declares to Baby’s dad (aka, Lenny Brisco) at the resort’s final dance, but we always were more fond of another: “I carried a watermelon.” We remember being just as hopelessly uncool to utter the same thing. So for our Dirty Dancing recipe in the current issue of Gather we made watermelon the star, fusing it with a minty (those are breath-freshening Altoids in the syrup!) flavor.
