Linda (lyndaluu), thanks for "seconding" Malna's advice. It sounds like the cottage cheese will work and taste OK. LindaC, I'll save that list; it explains why I can handle butter but not the other stuff. Lars, I appreciate your advice. I've read your posts in the past about lactose intolerance, and I think you're right that we can handle some cheeses (especially the hard, aged types) better than milk per se. But, unlike you, I've found that I can't handle cream, either (maybe it's really the milk mixed with the cream, but I don't want to experiment!). It's not a problem at home, of course, but I've sometimes been in great "distress" immediately after a restaurant meal if I wasn't aware of milk in a brown gravy or thought I could disregard the small amount of cream in a sauce or the shredded parmesan topping on a salad. After you suffer the consequences a few times, you learn to be very cautious (I carry Lactaid tablets in my purse). I'm going to try SoyaKaas mozzarella-style substitute in my lasagna. I keep watching for other new products. There are so many lactose-intolerant people, you'd think there would be a huge market for these products, but so far, they mainly sell soy yogurt and lactose-free milk, cottage cheese, american cheese, and ice cream. I'm grateful that I can have grilled cheese and ice cream again, after years of abstaining, but I'd like to see many more types of cheeses and other products. Sue

I have three things to add. 1. Re: Paneer (nice recipe for palak paneer!),when making paneer (or what my grandmother called "farmer cheese") you don't have to boil the milk until it foams to double its size. You just have to bring it 195 degrees. Different milks, in different climates and altitudes, reach this temperature at different stages of what we'd see as "boil". A kitchen thermometer ($4.94) is my favorite recent purchase. 2. Re cheese - after letting the paneer drip in its cheesecloth, you can put it (still wrapped in cheesecloth) in a small basket on an inverted bowl on a plate, and put a couple of pounds of weight on it, and let it sit in the fridge for about 3 hours. The result is a firmer cheese, excellent for slicing and therefore for sandwhiches. In terms of flavoring the cheese, in winter (no fresh herbs!) I've found that a small amount of ground dried porcini mushrooms palced in the milk as it heats lends a deep, subtle taste to the cheese. Also, lightly toasted sesame seeds rolled into the finished cheese before it's drained makes a great toasty taste and interesting crunch. 3. Re: whey itself, this may be whey out there for the veges on this blog (please cover your eyes!), but I've found whey is superb when used to make a sauce for venison steak. I take the wine in which I marinated the venison, mix in cornstarch, add whey, cook for 15 minutes, and poof! a sweet and savory sauce, perfect for venison's flavor.

Updating my kefir experimentation results: I made a kefir cheese ball, by hanging the curds is a bag until solid, then adding dried onion flakes, red pepper flakes, granulated garlic, basil flakes, salt, pepper, and a little sugar to try to balance the sourness of the cheese. I still didn't care for it without the butter and cream cheese, but my son loved it with crackers, so I sent it home with him. If I have extra cheese, I'll save it for his visits. I made sugar cookies today, using a drop cooky recipe that I've been using for many years, but I substituted 1/2 cup kefir cheese for 1/4 cup of the butter, and left out 1 Tbs of the milk. Since the cheese was a little 'curdled' and very sour, I added a couple of Tbs. of corn syrup and substituted 1/4 tsp of baking soda for 1/4 tsp. of the baking powder, because of the lactic acid. Oh my, are they good!

I think we have become so used to having our food sources possibly contaminated that the manufacturers are doing a huge CYA on the recommendations. You can make your own cream cheese....but warning it involves unrefrigerated milk and cream for 12 hours while the culture grows....and you will need to leave it out another 5 or 6 hours to drain. Cheese needs to be aged in a cool place....most cheeses...but when it has developed it's fine at room temp. Cheese is funny stuff....it won't "set" if there is any antibiotics at all in the milk used.....and if you are using pasteurized milk, you need to add a culture. As cheese ages it gets more acedic ( that's a very general statement) and less friendly for harmful bacteria to grow....check on line and see the number of cheese makers that ship their aged cheeses through the mail....without ice packs!