Fun with milk and cheese

Dick and Borgna got me this great book for Christmas and I've been digging into it every night.

It's a big volume, so I've only gotten through milk, cheese and eggs.  Already I'm inspired to experiment with homemade yogurt and cheese.  I used to be the head yogurt maker at the great Hal's restaurant in Hanover NH in my college days, so I have some experience. However, yogurt requires a warm environment to gel, and what worked in Hal's steamy basement kitchen in July might not do so well in ours, for obvious reasons.  I'm going to have to do some thinking on how I can work around the problem.  I should probably admit, since I'm sure I'll get a comment, that one Christmas Clare sweetly gave me an automatic yogurt maker which I never used and ultimately gave away.  I've been known to re-buy things that I've stupidly gotten rid of, so that's a possibility.  
Anyway, I decided to start with homemade cheese!  I'm going to try a ricotta cheese for my first project. Then I'm going to use it in one of our family's favorite dinners, Pasta Broccoli.  For the cheese I need milk, buttermilk, a stainless steel pot, cheesecloth, a colander, spatula, slotted spoon, and a cooking thermometer. 
Check back later today for the results!