Roasted Herb Potatoes: It's a secret to everybody.

Restaurants make this look hard. It's not. In fact it's pretty easy once you know how to do it. The hardest thing I've ever had to deal with is mom coming by, snagging pieces before I set them on the tables and then yelping "Ow it's hot!" Really genius? Just out of a 400 degree oven and this is a surprise? I know they're good but wait a few minutes!

What you'll need:

• oven safe dish (I used a pyrex 8x8 dish)
• sharp knife
• cutting board

Ingredients:

• 4 to 5 small or 2 to 3 medium potatoes (skins still on)
• 2 tablespoons (or more) herbs, dried or fresh (can use thyme, rosemary, oregano, basil or a combination)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt & pepper

Step 1: Start your oven

Put the oven on to 400. While that's heating up, wash your potatoes with a nail brush or the back of a sponge (the rough side). The goal here is to get as much dirt removed as you can, not rip the skin off. Use cold or cool water. As I've said before, hot or very warm water needs to go through a water heater before it gets to your faucet. A lot of times there are sediments in the tank that can get into your food and if you live in a major city you're already getting your RDA of carcinogens.

Step 2: Cubing, not just for Picasso

The next step is cutting up the potatoes. Take your (big, sharp) knife and cut one in half. Set it on the flat side and cut again. Depending on how big your potatoes are you might want to give the pieces another chop. Lather, rinse, repeat until all of the potatoes are cut up to about bit sized pieces. It dosen't have to be perfect. You want to fit a piece in your mouth without hanging out the sides making you look like a total glutton.

Step 3: Oil, spices, go

Put them in the oven proof dish and toss with the oil, herbs of choice and seasoning. By the time you finish with all that the oven should be ready or close to it. Pop the dish in the oven. It should take about 45 minutes. Toss the potatoes half way through roasting so that they don't stick too much to the bottom. A spatula will do fine.