Who is MJXS?
M -- Attorney by day, chef by night. I enjoy making my own recipes, experimenting with new techniques, and (most importantly) eating.
J -- Excel master by day, amateur photographer by night. Enjoys eating my food and venturing to new restaurants with me.
Xerox -- Chihuahua/Italian Greyhound mix. Likes to stand directly underneath me when I'm prepping food, hoping for a morsel or two (which he usually gets).
Salty -- Our newest addition. Adopted on 10/30/2010 from Bideawee, this little poodle/terrier mix is a sweetheart, and loves food almost as much as we do.
What's with the name?
The blog began in the fall of 2009, when M had little to do between graduating law school and starting a job in Big Law. We, at the time, lived in a second floor walkup - hence the name. We have since moved (July 2010) to a fourth floor elevator building (with terrace and dishwasher - yessssssss), but are keeping the name as an homage to our first apartment together.
Where do you get the recipes?
I make up most of my recipes (unless otherwise stated). I usually decide I want to make something, then read sample recipes in several cookbooks to get a basic idea of the ingredients involved. Then, through a little creative license and adjusting for my personal tastes, a recipe is born.
What about the pictures?
I take pics (with the occasional help of J) using J's Canon Rebel XSi DSLR. I generally use a macro lens and an external flash.
What font did you use for the header?
It's not a font - I piped it on brown parchment paper using colored buttercream, took a photo of it, and voila! Logo!
But what if I can't cook?
Everyone can cook. Start with recipes (like mine), take a deep breath - if it doesn't work out, it's not the end of the world. Most problems with cooking come from the cook freaking out. In the end, you need to cook a lot and eat a lot. My recipes don't always turn out great the first time, but you learn to recognize what went wrong, and how you can change it. You'll learn what works and what doesn't.
I want to know how to make xyz, do you have a recipe for that?
I might. If I don't, I can come up with one. Just email me at mjx [at] secondfloorwalkup [dot] com.
Do you have advertisers?
I'm part of the Amazon Associates program and Google Adsense, but try to keep the ads to a minimum. If you're interested in advertising your product, store, blog, or restaurant on 2FW, please contact me at mjx [at] secondfloorwalkup [dot] com.
Thanks for reading! Follow me on twitter and facebook!
