Oops. I accidentally made cheese! Now what?

My accidental buttermilk cheese

A few days ago I decided I needed to make some more buttermilk and I had such good results from my first attempt I wasn't worried. Well, after 24 hours of sitting my jar looked like this:  a big glob of white stuff floating on top of a slightly colored liquid.  What really irritated me was not that I had accidentally made cheese, but that I had just used up the last of my buttermilk and I would have to go out and purchase some more.

On an even more irritating side note, my local Sams Club didn't have buttermilk (they always had the best price).  Who knows if this is a permanent situation or they had run out.





Anyhoo, back to my accidental cheese making.  The cottage like cheese was a bit sour and since I really dislike cottage cheese I decided to use it in a lasagna.  About 2 months ago I had made a lasagna and had boiled up a whole box of the noodles.  I had quite a few left over and so I froze them in between layers of wax paper.  I thawed them out, fried up a bit of hamburger with onions and seasoned it and put together the lasagna.

First layer of the lasagna with my homemade cheese.

What came out of our oven was probably one of the best lasagnas I have ever made.  I don't know if it had to do with my accidental cheese or it may have been that particular day was the first beautiful day in Fargo and I had been working outside all afternoon cleaning up my flowerbeds and garden and I was super hungry, but this meal was amazing.

So, when a recipe appears to have "failed" don't despair and throw it away, because many times it can be turned into something delicious.  I can't wait for my next yogurt, sour cream or buttermilk recipe to "fail" and become cheese so I can make another outstanding meal!