Chickpeas are a wonderful canvas

For salads, that is. I made a big pot of chickpeas the other night and made hummus (chickpeas, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and a little water blended in a blender) and there were plenty left over. So I made a salad of chickpeas, chopped onion, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, a little hummus, Italian seasoning and some chopped up sweet peas. Delicious and very nutritious. The chickpeas pack the protein in (lean protein, too!) and you can't go wrong with veggies and olive oil! I had a piece of bread with it last time to make it a nice complete protein. 

And on to the mozzarella! 

Here the milk is heating to 55 F, then citric acid is added

It's just a wee bit curdled here. At 90 F you add rennet (only a 1/4 tsp!)

Then it is heated to 100 -105 F. This is on its way there and you can see it's very curdled.

Scoop the curds out of the whey (the clear liquid) and microwave them. This heats it up so you can knead it. You could do it in the whey, but I don't have gloves and it is too hot to handle without gloves so it's easier to microwave and knead with kitchen utensils. I ended up dumping it on the counter and using a spatula.  

You can see it's getting to be one mass

And even though I saw it happen at my friend's house, I really can hardly believe that it actually has turned to cheese. 

And here are "cheese sticks," cooling in a cool water bath.
 I am a very poor cheese shaper! But hopefully I'll get better
if I do this on any kind of regular basis.