Beginner's Success

Just made my first batch yesterday- got a kit for Christmas (and had been wanting to get into cheesemaking for a while). I started small, with cream cheese, for a family cheese spread recipe to bring to a gumbo dinner tonight.
The first attempt suffered from insufficient curdling (my house is at 68, the recipe called for 72, so I think it went a bit slower) and coarse cheesecloth instead of butter muslin. It ran right down the drain.
The second attempt was much better- I gave it a few extra hours to set, and got some butter muslin from my lhbs. Fluffy, creamy, deliciousness.

Next step- queso fresco.

If you like Indian food, paneer is pretty easy to make.

I love Indian food and have been getting into cooking it lately, thanks. My wife gave me an Indian cooking class for my birthday, and we made paneer there. I certainly won't buy it again, but I haven't made it on my own yet. The store-bought stuff is so rubbery compared to what we made in the class.

http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/18487/saag-paneer.html

That's the recipe my wife uses for the paneer, and she adds a bit of salt to it also, but she just kinda makes up the saag as she goes along, depending on what we have around.