One of the easiest (though with the baking time not necessarily the quickest) side dishes one can come up with is roasted potatoes. Particularly if you use new potatoes, or small creamers - they usually have few eyes and imperfections and not a lot of dirt to be scrubbed, so they can just be chopped in half quickly. But they are simple and tasty and always a hit with the meat-and-potatoes crowed (namely, my husband).
If you don't have these herbs or spices handy, improvise and make your own. Just be sure that you are generous with the salt and the cracked pepper.
Herbed Roasted Potatoes
2-3 lbs of red or gold new potatoes, creamers, or small yukon golds
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
2 generous tablespoons of parsley - dried, or chopped fresh
1 tbsp NaCl
several peppermill twists of cracked pepper - probably equaling 2 tbsp or so
pinch or two of dried rosemary
sprinkle of garlic salt or 1/2 tsp minced garlic
Rinse (or wash if they are super dirty) the potatoes and dig out any eyes and peel out any bad spots, leaving as much skin intact as possible.
For smaller potatoes, cut them in half - for larger new potatoes (larger meaning length of more than 2 inches or so) cut them into quarters. Put the cut potatoes in a large mixing bowl and toss with the olive oil and spices until evenly coated. Spread the coated potatoes evenly on a dark baking sheet and bake in the oven at 400 for 40-45 minutes, or until done.
If you have so many potatoes that a single layer on the baking sheet isn't possible, use two sheets! In the photo below I am obviously heavy on the parsley (because I like it), so if yours don't look quite so "herbed" that is just fine. You can serve them straight out of the oven, or top with a pat of butter if you like. Leftovers are great in the morning alongside scrambled eggs!
