Our TeamTracey Middlekauff

Tracey Middlekauff

About Me

Tracey (you can call her Trix; almost everybody else does) is a Philadelphia-based freelance writer and editor. She (happily) writes about everything from tech to business to health, but her real passions are food, drink, and travel.


Latest Stories

Table for One: The Joy of Eating Out Alone
In the past two weeks, I have gone out to eat all by myself twice. And I’m not talking about a rushed lunch on a workday, a hastily dispatched fast-food meal, or some shopping-break grub at a mall food court — my meals were leisurely dinners at full-service restaurants where I drank and dined alone, seated solo at a two-top. Right about now you may be thinking something along the lines of, “You poor thing! Eating all alone! Were you dumped? Did your friends cancel on you?
May 24, 2019
Confessions of Diner Waitresses: 4 Real-Life Servers Dish
Ah, the Great American Diner. The gleaming countertops, the chrome, the endless cups of coffee, the cure for the common hangover. And let’s not forget those wise-cracking waitresses with their uniform dresses, starched aprons, and hearts of gold. (See: Mildred Pierce, Keri Russell in Waitress, and of course Flo “Kiss my Grits” Castleberry.) But what’s the life of a diner waitress really like?
May 24, 2019
Is It Safe to Eat Homemade Halloween Treats?
Even if you’re not a person who loves Halloween — the costumes, the candy, the commercialism — there is an aspect of the holiday that’s actually really nice. On this one day, people open up their doors and welcome you into their homes (or at least onto their stoops or porches or driveways). People who might not, on any other given day, even nod hello will greet you with a basket or a plastic pumpkin full of treats.
May 1, 2019
How I Remember My Mother at Thanksgiving
As a food writer and sometime culinary student, I’m used to people having expectations of me around the holidays. They assume that I’ll cook (or at least eat) some fancy or unusual take on the classic dishes. And once upon a time, this was true. In the early 2000s, just as I was beginning to get serious about my love of food and cooking, I was enamored of the new and the novel.
Nov 24, 2016
Marshmallows on Sweet Potatoes: Who Thought This Up Anyway?
When it comes to holiday meals, I am all about the side dishes. I would happily forgo the turkey, ham, or centerpiece protein altogether in favor of a panoply of starchy, gooey goodness to pile on my plate. And I’m no side dish snob. At Thanksgiving, I crave unpretentious dishes like green bean casseroles, corn puddings, and mashed potatoes choking beneath a pool of butter and gravy. There is, however, one notable exception to my love of traditional Thanksgiving sides.
Nov 7, 2016
Why I Hate B&Bs
In one of my favorite-ever Gilmore Girls episodes But their hunger and exhaustion get the better of them and they stay, only to end up trapped in their rooms, too afraid to walk past the other guests who are gathered downstairs for the obligatory cocktail hour. Lorelai explains to Rory that they cannot take a chance and rush past them to escape because, “if they catch us they’ll clamp onto us like leeches. And you know what that means. Chitchat.
Jul 22, 2016