I planted my potatoes in a burlap coffee sack (purchased for 50 cents at Polcari's in the North End - if you live in Boston and don't know it, you should make a plan to drop in).  Two days prior I cut a couple of the seed potatoes in half so that the skin would have time to harden off before I placed them in the soil.  The process was pretty easy - I just covered them with about 4 inches of soil.  Now I am in the wait-and-see phase.  Hopefully within the next couple of weeks there will be some sprouts poking out from the top soil layer.