Just over a week ago I took part in the first cook along live with Mill House, Birtley on Facebook, which basically consisted of two of the lads who work for The Mill House, talking us through how to make a three course meal using the ingredients prepared by them earlier that day. It turned out to be one of the best nights I’ve had this second lockdown, and it was totally unexpected. I loved it, and they’re doing it again this Friday. So if you saw some clips on my instagram, or want to know more then read on so you know what to expect from the second cook along live with The Mill House this Friday.

Disclaimer: Our meal was complimentary from the Mill House, but opinions are always my own.

On the Friday afternoon I collected the prepared menu from The Mill House at about 11:30am. The way it works is you place your order on their website, which for us was Camembert sharer starter in olive and oregano bread, fillet steaks, and sticky toffee pudding with sauce and ice cream for desert. Then you collect it between 11:30 and 6pm to take home ready for the live stream.

You can also order a bottle of wine to go with it too, and regardless of if you choose to buy your wine from them or get your own, I would definitely make sure you plan to have a drink. The pub is about 2 minutes from the Angel of the North, so you could pop by there for a walk before or after you pick up your ingredients.

Everything was packaged up so it went straight in the fridge, or freezer for the ice cream until that evening. Unlike other takeaways of this kind there are no instructions, but that’s entirely the point as at 7pm you join the live facebook video, where chefs Jack and Chris talk you through it and cook along with you.

I don’t know why but I was expecting this to be quite serious, but from the minute they started it was very clear they were both half cut, and were up for having a laugh the entire night. I’m glad we were already a drink or two down so we were on the same wavelength.

They were great, so funny and genuinely normal lads just enjoying making their food and helping out their pub during lockdown. All while having a bit of craic while doing it.

We made the baked Camembert sharer to start, which was absolutely unreal, already prepared in the bread so it was just a case of putting it in the oven. While we waited for it to cook the lads did a bit of a Q&A via facebook which was also pretty funny, and they began the prep for the steak main course too.

Once ready the Camembert came out the oven and we were given time away from the live stream to sit down and enjoy it, before rejoining to finish the meal. Despite being on their merry way, both of them were good at answering specific questions on how to cook the steaks to exactly your taste, and in detailing the timings for everything else to go in the oven.

Apologies for my poor photography here, I actually spent more time videoing what was happening so this is a still from a video. You can see all my videos from the night on my highlight here.

Again once it was all ready and plated up, the feed was paused for us to tuck in and enjoy it. It really was an incredible meal I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s something a bit different to do and even if we are let out of lockdown, there’s a good chance the North East might be in Tier 3 so I hope they keep doing it.

It would be great for a night where you fancy something a bit more fancy but don’t want to do all the preparation yourself, as all that is taken care for you so the actual cooking is very easy. And of course if you’re up for a bit of a laugh they don‘t take themselves seriously at all so it was a lot of fun to join in with the chat and conversation via the comments.

By desert we were onto another bottle of wine, but we managed not to burn anything and it was a big success. Kieran had all the intentions of watching the golf masters that night, while I joined the cook along to make dinner, but he got totally distracted by how funny the two of them were, and all the helpful tips they had for cooking steak.

This week the cook along live from the Mill House is back, this time with a different menu, chicken instead of steak. If you fancy joining in to do something different, enjoy good food and a few drinks then I really would recommend doing it. I really enjoyed it.

You can find and order this weeks cook along with Mill House menu from their website here, but also make sure you’re following them on their social channels so you can join the stream.

Disclaimer: Our meal was complimentary from the Mill House, but opinions are always my own.