I was born in Milton, FL and have lived here all my life. I love horses! That is mine in the picture (Mark's Harlequin a.k.a. Flea). Cooking is kind of a recent thing for me, and I am finding that what I thought I hated, I really love to do. Everyone laughs at me when I say it, but when I try a new recipe, I always say "If it doesn't turn out, there is always Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwhiches!" :) Who can mess that up, right!? Just as a side note: My real name is Janine and is pronounced as Ja-neen. All my close friends call me Nine (pronounced Neen). That is where my profile name came from. I love to cook up parties. I've done a Salsa dip party which was a blast and I also hosted a fondue party which was way out of this world fun. I would recommend hosting one of those for yourself and let the fun begin. I love cooking pastas, stirfrys, and soups. When we were small, every Christmas season we would spend one entire day making sugar cookies. My mom had all kinds of food colorings and frosting flavors (I'm talking about 20-30 flavors). Each of us (there are three of us/ I have an older and a younger brother) got to choose a couple combinations of color and flavor. We would decorate the cookies and take small plates to all our friends. It was a blast! Of course, since we are older and busier, the tradition is no more. Its just amemory I will always cherish. Who knows, eventually my children may be doing the same thing! I love to try a recipe exactly as written then change it according to what my family prefers. Makes a 5 star recipe a 7 star or more!! One that I like to remember is the Jalapeno Popper Spread from this site. I made it for a church gathering, and it was completely gone. The next day my dad asked me to make more, but I didn't have everything for it. Instead I ended up using some jalapenos, green peppers, and ground red pepper. Wow!! It was delicious and my mom (she didn't like the first round) loved it! I tried to fry chicken. :( It was really bad) Was going to have dinner around 7:00 and probably didn't actually sit down to eat until about 8:30 because every time I checked it blood still ran out. Yuck! The kitchen was an absolute wreck from the oil and flour, then the chicken was very tough and not even edible! Not sure when I'll work up the courage to try that again.