Book signings and hot spots

I had my first book signing Saturday at a local bookstore. I do not understand why this is a valuable source of promotion for a book. You sit at a table and hope against all odds that someone will come up and be interested enough in your book to buy it on the spot so they can get your very desirable signature. This, of course, did not happen to me. The only thing that remotely saved me from total embarrassment was I sent out an e-mail blast to my friends and had some pity visitors. I understand that Mario Batali or Bobby Flay will get lines forming for a book signing two days before the event, but there’s got to be some happy medium between super star chefs and lowly cookbook authors like me.

Ah, well. As always there’s a silver lining. My publisher suggested I bring some food samples to the book store and I decided to make the red pepper and cream cheese crostini from the book. So I grilled some slices of baguette and got a really easy and cheap lesson in how to tell the hot spots on your grill. Put the first batch on and as I turned them over some were a lovely brown with beautiful grill marks and some were almost black. Aha! Guess where the hot spots are on my grill?

So here’s the recipe: Baguettes sliced into about 1/2-inch thick slices. Brush both sides with olive oil and sprinkle with freshly ground salt. Grill until pretty on both sides. When cool, top with cream cheese and red pepper jelly.