Caprese Salad & my purple thumb

I've always liked caprese salad and decided to try making it myself tonight.  Umm...it was really easy and I'm embarrassed that I never made it before.  The glops on the side are Hummus, yummy!
The catch to this not being cheap is the fresh basil. For a very small package of about 8 leaves and some stems $2.50.

Once up on a time, Princess Cocoa bought a basil and a mint plant at the store for $2.50 each.  She was excited to grow plants that were also edible (& it was cheaper than buying packages at the deli).  Cocoa took them home and put them in a sunny window and they grew and grew until they were huge! The fresh basil smelled better than any air-freshener and it had huge leaves that were used in all sorts of stuff.  Much fresh pasta sauce was made and some eggplant parmigiana too.  The mint was great for fresh Mojitos and sorbet (yes, she made lemon mint sorbet from scratch!)  Then, all of the sudden the basil shriveled up and died.  Cocoa couldn't tell if out grew itself or just died for no reason.  Regardless, she was very bummed out and vowed never to get a new plant again.
Shortly after, her mint plant contracted some kind of white flying bugs under the leaves.  It was so gross, there were millions of them, so she tossed it outside. And of course, that killed it.
She thought she was doomed to have a purple thumb for all eternity.

Poor Princess Cocoa, never adopted a new plant and thanks God that her cat is vocal so she isn't neglected to death too.

Tonight she saw those cute little herb plants at the store again (they keep them in the produce section) and almost bought one, but remembered the tragedy that were the last two and walked away.

The End