Thunder Cake

I grew up in southern California where thunder and lightening were rare.  When we'd go to our cabin in the mountains in southern Utah in the summer, the thunder was so loud on the aluminum roof and the lightening lit the black sky, it was amazing to me as a kid. Then I went to college in Utah and thunderstorms were common, I loved the summer thunderstorms when I could get drenched in rain while it was warm out.  When Princess Sparkley was 3 and Buddy was 17 months we moved to Kansas.  The kids were not a fan of thunderstorms.  I don't think I'd ever heard anything like a Kansas thunderstorm with the loudest BOOM BOOMs ever, until we moved to Virginia.  I didn't think Kansas thunder could get topped, but either Virginia's thunder is louder, or they are very close.  This morning was another one of those loud storms.  Thunder so loud it woke me and the big kids up.  It shook the house. The storm was weak compared to a Kansas storm, but the LOUD BOOMING thunder.  The thunder inspired me to read the book Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco to the kids again, a book my mom bought us when we were living in Kansas and the kids were terrified of thunderstorms. And this time, we braved the recipe (which includes pureed tomatoes) and made a Thunder Cake.