Homemade Ricotta Cheese

I heard from a friend that you can make your own...and since I want to make lasagna tonight and since 2lbs of Ricotta at the store costs somewhere around $6, I thought I'd give it a try. I bought 1 gallon of whole milk for $2 and got to it. Thanks to Clara and Gail, I knew baaaasically what to do. Not sure if I made it "correctly" as you'll see....but I did end up with cheese, so that's good enough for me. This is what I did, for what it's worth:

Cooked 1 gal whole milk in large pot over med-high heat while stirring constantly until scalded (I don't have a thermometer and always just eyeball it, or give it the sniff test...milk smells very aromatic when it's at the right temp.) Then I added 1/4 white vinegar and stopped stirring. (this is where maybe I messed up....should I have continued stirring for a bit??) The milk started to curdle right away and I didn't want to break up the curds. Then I strained the whole pot through cheesecloth and a colander (in that order) into a large pot. Tied the cheesecloth up, and hung it from a cupboard handle to drain completely. I ended up with something around 1c ricotta- what?? Gail said it makes 2 lbs. hmmm... So,

I let the whey (the stuff in the pot after the curds were strained) cool and tried again. Yes, I did. Brought that whey to an almost boil and, without even adding more vinegar, it started to curdle! Yes! More Ricotta. About another cup more. So I strained that through cheesecloth, tied it, hung it up, and let the whey cool. Then I thought, "what the heck."

I set that whey on to heat again. I know, I can't believe it either. It came almost to a boil, like before, smelled right...but nothing happened. So I added 2 T vinegar to the pot and it curdled right up! Yielded about another 1/2c. Oh, yeah! Bring on the lasagna!