cheese please!

Homemade mozzarella cheese.  I've been wanting to make this since I read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver about 2 years ago.  She makes it sound so easy.  And, honestly, it is pretty easy - in the same way that making bread is easy.  It requires you to be home for a few hours and to be good at waiting.  The recipes say it takes 30 minutes but really, it takes more like 2 hours.  Or perhaps, it just takes me 2 hours. 

You start but curdling milk with citric acid and rennet (sure, those ingredients might sound exotic or perhaps frightening, but they are easy to find at any natural food store). You have to pay close attention to the temperature of the milk to make sure it curds at the right temperature.  Then you drain out the whey and put the curds in the microwave (you want to heat it so that it becomes stretchy - I think there are other ways to do this but the microwave is fast and easy). Then you start kneading it...this is when it starts to look and feel like cheese.  Add salt and you are done.  Mozzarella.  Better than the store bought stuff too!

All the requirements were met: it was delicious, I had fun making it, and it costs less then the store bought stuff.  But, for me, it's a special occasion thing...you won't find me making my own cheese every week.  It wasn't that I didn't like it or enjoy it but I'd rather spend my time doing other things.