I have to tell you guys another little secret – I am terrified of hotel rooms and sleeping alone.

It’s bad enough when I have to sleep alone at home when Jon is traveling overnight, but combine sleeping alone and my fear of hotel rooms, and I’m a wreck.  If you’ve ever traveled with me (I’m looking at Gina right now), you know that I make you go into my room and check under my bed before I even walk into my hotel room.  I don’t know if it’s watching too much SVU or what, but I’m always imagining dead bodies under my hotel room bed.

A few years ago, back when I used to travel for work all the time, Gina, another colleague and I were on a trip to San Francisco.  Our co-worker was in charge of booking the hotel rooms for us and he wanted to try an off-the-beaten-path hotel.  When we arrived, we realized this place was no Hilton – in fact, it was downright creepy.  I couldn’t really place my finger on it but something about it gave me the goosebumps.  We walked up to our rooms and, as usual, I made Gina check under my bed and in my closet before I settled in for the night.  I barely slept that night as the heater made all sorts of noises and I kept hearing the creaking floors.  The second night Gina and our co-worker were off to another city and I was left behind, all alone in the creepy hotel.  Since my own room was terrifying enough I decided to spend the evening in the hotel lobby, doing some work.  As I sat there, typing away on my computer, I heard a tour going through the hotel.  A haunted tour.  Of our hotel.  It took everything in my might not to freak out right there and then.

Well, this San Francisco trip isn’t without a story either.  Although we booked a very popular and very not-haunted hotel this time, I was still nervous about staying alone.  It didn’t help that about 5 minutes after getting my key card at registration I lost the cards (I don’t know how…).  The card had my room number and everything on it.  I went back to registration, asked them to deactivate the old keys and give me a new set, which they did.  After my co-worker checked under my bed and in my closet, I settled in for the evening.  However, with the long day of travel and the time zone change, I kept tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.  At 12:45am I heard someone trying to get into my room, swiping the card over and over again.   Thankfully, I’m one of those people that locks the deadbolt and the latch any time I am in the room, but I still sat there, on the edge of my bed, hugging my phone, terrified.  Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep that night.

So what does this story have anything to do with the oven-baked fries?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

I made these over the weekend as part of our “clean the fridge and pantry” meals.  The trick to these delicious fries is to put them in warm water for about 30 minutes prior to baking.  The second trick is the Silpat.  If you don’t have one of these, add it to your must-buy list immediately.  I’m not even kidding you. It’s life changing.

After that, just cut up little strips, toss them with some olive oil and your herbs of choice (mine are Italian seasoning, a dash of red peppers, salt, pepper, and garlic salt), then spread out on the baking sheet with a Silpat and bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, flipping them halfway through.  I also like to keep them under the broiler for about 5 minutes at the end for the extra crispiness.