1. Get out your favorite apron. I chose the lemons because of the lemon juice I'd need for acid in the paneer.

2. Have lunch. You don't know how long this will take or how stressful it might be, so you may need sustenance. This is my standard go-to-the-grocery-store-lunch of roasted corn salad and tofu with sun dried tomato pesto, straight from the Harris Teeter salad bar. Pomegranate juice and seltzer. My plate does not always coordinate with my apron, but today it did. That was nice.

3. Choose music. Technically I should have picked some nice sitar music, but let's face it, I'm not a fan. Wilco radio on Pandora.

4. If your printer is broken or out of ink, or both, jot down the recipe so you don't have to keep walking back and forth to the computer. It's so far away.

5. Face it that you've stalled long enough and get ready to not boil a quart of milk.

6. While the milk is coming to an almost-boil, squeeze enough lemons to make about three-four tablespoons lemon juice.

7. Line everything up to reduce risk of panic. Milk, lemon juice, cheesecloth-strainer, teaspoon.

8. When the milk is almost at a boil, add the lemon juice, a teaspoon at a time (and stirring after each addition) until the milk curdles. This will take about three tablespoons of lemon juice. Call everyone in to see.

9. Sit on your tuffet and knit patiently while the curds and whey cool.

10. When cool enough to handle, strain the curds in a strainer lined with cheesecloth and rinse.

11. Squeeze as much moisture as possible from the cheesecloth and shape it into a round.

12. Place something heavy on the cheesecloth-wrapped paneer and let it sit as long as possible.

13. When ready to prepare, slice into cubes. It should be pretty firm by now.

14. After you slice it up, fry it up and eat it up, YUM! Get ready to do it all again.

15. Eat a great dinner and rest on your laurels. It only seems like magic.