Debbie Thornton

Debbie Thornton, better known as "The Blonde," is a mom and cookbook author who approaches life with zest and curiosity. Blonde?—Well maybe…but definitely someone who can make you laugh at your foibles just as she's made a business of laughing at hers.

Ordinarily, Attention Deficit Disorder is no laughing matter, but this A.D.D. author finds ways to laugh at the obstacles in her life and thanks God for putting them there. After all, her logic goes, without the obstacles, she wouldn't be where she is today: sitting on a growing business that helps cooks of all hair colors laugh at their mistakes and keep cooking.

In her latest book, Any Body Can Cook in a Crockpot: Slow Cooking Your Way to Heaven, she shares recipes that make life so much easier for cooks with any or no kitchen skills. She goes even further, sharing her faith and her journey to that faith, in her own style of cookbook chats. For each page of recipes there's an essay with her rhyming "blonde," analysis of different Bible verses.

Her first three books, each seasoned with blonde jokes (and occasionally redhead and brunette jokes, too), offer solid recipes written for cooks on the go who need to throw a meal together in a hurry.

So simplify (or as The Blonde would say, "blondify") your kitchen with her quartet of easy and fun-to-read cookbooks. Whether you we're born blonde, brunette, or redhead, take some time to laugh at yourself on the way to the kitchen. And as Debbie likes to remind us, take time to give thanks for that food, that kitchen, and the people for whom you're preparing that meal. After all, we all share the same roots!