Lodi, I've made these for years - I don't find them difficult, they shouldn't take more than a half hour or so, unless you're making a great big batch. 

Ingredients: Four large russet or Yukon gold potatoes, a small yellow onion (or half a large), one egg, 2 tbsp of flour, salt, pepper, vegetable oil.

Equipment: Large mixing bowl, a grater, spatula, heavy skillet (cast iron is best), platter for serving and paper towels.  Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees, for warming, later.

Peel, and then grate the potatoes and onion in mixing bowl. Squeeze out as much water as possible from the grated vegetables by pressing on them with your hand, and pouring liquid out of bowl. (Alternatively, you could dump vegetables onto a piece of clean cheesecloth, make a bag of the cloth, and squeeze liquid out of bag).  Repeat a few times until they're fairly dry.

Beat egg and mix that in, add couple tablespoons of flour, a half teaspoon of salt, a little black pepper.

Pour about a half-inch of oil in a heavy skillet, heat on medium high for a few minutes. Important to crispy success is testing to see if oil is hot enough by dropping a small piece of potato-batter in - it should sizzle immediately. 

Grab a handful of the mixture, form thin patties, and place in skillet (or, you could spoon mixture into skillet, and press down with back of spoon to flatten). Don't crowd patties - you'll need to fry in a couple of batches. Fry until golden brown on one side, then flip over like pancakes with spatula. Fry until other side is golden brown and crispy.

Put paper towel on platter, and place 1st batch of latkes on it, pop in oven to keep warm. Cook the rest of potato mixture in same way.  I sometimes sprinkle with chopped green onion, or chives. 

Serve with applesauce and sour cream. (Essential!)

You can vary recipe by using half zucchini, half potato, or add some grated carrot. There are a zillion recipes on internet (link below is good), crucial is to make sure excess water in shredded vegetables is squeezed out, and that oil is hot enough when you start frying. 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Potato-Pancakes-I/Detail.aspx