A March Challenge: Lemon Herb Cheese

I have been a bit of a slacker lately when it comes to certain things.  One of those things has been posting the results of my efforts to meet the Urban Farm Handbook Challenge.  When I first heard about the yearlong series of challenges I thought no problem!  And it's not a problem (the challenges are actually fun and things I had been wanting or planning to do anyway).  The problem lies in the fact that I have a full time job and can't live in dream world where they garden, cook, and blog all the day through.  Wouldn't that be nice though?!  

So, even though I do have my soil and compost filled raised beds ready and am working on the compost bin for the February challenge (I told you I was a slacker), I will have to post that later.  Right now, here is my pretty-good-if-I-do-say-so-myself cheese for the March Home Dairy challenge.  

This is my first time ever attempting to make cheese or dairy products of any kind, and it has inspired me to go further.  The cheese I made was a fresh ricotta type cheese flavored with lemon and fresh herbs.  It reminds me of goat cheese but without as much of the tang.  It is excellent on bread and pretty darn good straight out of the bowl.  I am planning to use it this week but can't decide if I would rather have it mixed into pasta with sugar snap peas or crumbled over a salad of warm beets and walnuts.  Either way, I think it will be delicious. 

I followed the detailed instructions and recipe from Andrew Wilder over at Eating Rules which he posted in conjunction with the March challenge, and the process was surprisingly simple.  Head on over, check it out, and try it for yourself.  Yogurt and mozzarella here I come!