John's Potato Recipe (Patreon)

As promised in today's pod, here's John's recipe for roasted potatoes. Add as many onions or other root vegetables as you'd like:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 375 degrees if you want to take a risk and have fun.

Step 2: Cut up some of those red potatoes and put them on a baking pan. You can also use brown-skinned "new potatoes" for this, but I like the red ones more. The important thing is that the potatoes not be too big. You can quarter them if possible, but some are kinda big so you may need to cut those into six pieces. Don't overthink this, but also don't cut yourself.

Step 3: Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes, and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Do not go soft on the oil, salt, or pepper, not least because you're about to get some of them on your hands instead of on the potatoes. Some people also like garlic salt for this step, which is fine. I'm not here to judge.

Step 4: Got any herbs? Rosemary is great here. Thyme is also really good. Oregano? I don't know. Maybe if you're feeling it. Rosemary is the real winner for me, though. Anyway, sprinkle some herbs on your potatoes.

Step 5: Mix it all up with your hands. Get a little dirty. There's so little joy in this world at the moment, so take this time to feel a deep sense of kinship with your potatoes. Get the oil and salt and herbs all over every surface of them if you can.

Step 6: Cook in the oven for fifteen to eighteen minutes depending on your vibe and altitude. Then take them out and flip them. I like to do this by hand because I don't have a lot of adventure in my life and getting that close to a hot pan feels very dangerous. But you can also use a spatula. Cook them for another fifteen minutes, and then debate about whether they are done. Are they? Probably not. Cook another five minutes maybe depending on what looks right.

Step 7: Don't forget to turn off the oven. Take out your potatoes and let them cool before enjoying.