Fresh Mozzarella + Whey Ricotta

Keely and I made mozzarella on sunday. I had the special ingredients from when I got all excited about it after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. But the one time I did it it bombed, and I got discouraged. Also the yield from yogurt, ricotta, and fromage blanc is so much better. But she is reading the book, now, and she's enthusiastic.... so I supplied the tools, the citric acid, and the rennet tab, and Keely went to town. Recipe from Ricki, the cheese queen.
Getting the curds out of the whey. Yes, all the pics are yellow. Damn CFL bulbs.

curds draining

collected whey

kneading the cheese

stretching the cheese

braided mozz! fancy

my plate. pineapple heirloom and pink lady heirloom.

A Keely-sized serving

Update: I let the whey sit out over night, added some more citric acid, ~1t, brought it to a boil, let it coagulate, and ladeled it into some cheesecloth. Ricotta from whey is totally different from the whole milk ricotta that I usually make, still pretty tasty. One thing of note, the recipes on the web call for making the ricotta immediately after mozz. They are puritanical about it. It is BS. It actually worked less well as we made mozz again last night and I tried it that way with less yield.