ricotta rollercoaster

for christmas becky got me a cheese-making kit!!  on monday i decided to try making ricotta - this seemed to be the easiest of the varieties that the pamphlet would teach me to make.

milk + salt + citric acid + stirring + watching the thermometer slowly rise:

not pictured: the 10 minutes i stirred it and worried about it after the milk had reached the goal temperature.  turns out the pamphlet didn't tell you how long to keep it cooking.  ugh!  are these curds?  shouldn't there be more of them?  nothing is happening!  argh!!  fine: i'll just pour it into the cheesecloth and cross my fingers.

um, should there be more of this?  but it is coagulating nicely...:

i am a culinary genius and i made ricotta and it looks and tastes just like it's supposed to!!!!!!:

it was a rollercoaster ride, if you couldn't tell.

also not pictured: the amazing meal of good bread, ricotta, and roasted tomatoes with an arugula salad that i had for dinner that night.  not pictured because i did not have time to take a photo before inhaling it.

last night i made pasta with broccolini and onions in a vegetable broth sauce with ricotta on top.  also heaven.  also no time for a photo.  after my whole "is this all the ricotta it makes?" statement, i have a lot of ricotta in my fridge.  it keeps a week, according to the pamphlet.  it will be a week full of one woman ricotta parties.