Quark Wars, Episode One: The Battle Is Joined

Intrigued by the idea that I could make cheese at home, I've been thinking about and researching on the interweb to find recipes.

I read about requeson at The Wednesday Chef. I looked at several brief descriptions from Googled articles. I even scanned a story from a 4th grader who was successful at making cheese for her classmates. It sounded so easy - heat milk, add acid, strain the curds - what could be simpler?

Little did I know that it would use too many of the pots in my kitchen arsenal and all my strainers, more productive of major frustration than of tasty cheese, not a good thing when one is stuck indoors in a three-day rainstorm with a sick Beloved, a leaking roof and an energetic young dog.

And here's the pathetic yield from my first attempt, a tiny bowl of very bland curds about the consistency of hummus. What you can't see is the nearly half gallon of milk in the pot below that didn't curdle.

Back to the drawing boards!