When I first tasted Snooks’ Lasagna as a kid, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. After marrying Cathy, and finding out she had Snooks’ recipe, I knew I’d gone to heaven. It’s the best lasagna in the world.

Snooks and Isabelle Grobe were friends of my parents. His real name was Dallard Anthony Grobe, but no one called him that. As a matter of fact, I think he was only rarely called Tony – usually it was just Snooks, a nickname from his early days. We kids all thought he looked a bit like Jimmy Durante. He and Isabelle lived on the south side of Ottawa, on Allen Street. Although my folks knew them from church, I think the real friendship grew from the four of them getting together with other couples and playing Pinochle or Euchre in the evenings. Both were big card games in Ottawa, and I suppose Illinois in general.

As a child, while I remember going to their house with mom and dad for the card games, what I really remember was the smell of the lasagna cooking when you entered their home. It was wonderful. Eventually, it was taken out of the oven, and you were given a piping hot piece with a caution to be careful, or “you’ll burn the roof of your mouth!” I don’t recall ever being cautious, or burning my mouth. I do remember how delicious it was, and inevitably, I’d have two or three pieces, until mom would say “quit acting like you’re starving and never fed at home!”

Over the years, I saw less of Snooks and Isabelle, but I always remembered his lasagna. At the time, the recipe was “a secret” and supposedly never shared. Somehow though, mom ended up with a copy. She made Snooks’ Lasagna once or twice growing up, but not often. It was a bit labor intensive, and so mom usually made her all-day-simmer spaghetti sauce if we were eating “Italian”.

Time passed. Cathy and I married and the Army sent us overseas to Germany. One night I came home from work, and as I entered the house, there was a wonderful smell. I asked Cathy what was for dinner and she said “lasagna.” I laughed a bit and told her the story of Snooks and his lasagna. Cathy looked at me like I was stupid, and finally said “this is Snooks’ Lasagna – your mother gave me the recipe…” Sometimes, things don’t measure up to your memories – this was NOT one of those times. The lasagna was delicious, and just as good as I remembered. I think the cheese mixture in the recipe is what really made it special. I’m sure I ate two or three pieces, and washed it down with wine instead of the milk of my childhood. Thankfully, Cathy didn’t tell me to quit acting like I was starving.

For the past 40 years, it’s been a go-to recipe for Cathy. It’s still delicious, and I still get excited when she makes it. As I was recently searching around for my next blog idea, I thought Snooks’ Lasagna might make a good topic. I mentioned this to Cathy, and she immediately said “I’M NOT SHARING THE RECIPE! DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT….”.

Now the story gets a bit more interesting. In doing some research, I reached out to Charlean Grobe, who was my Kindergarten teacher and Snooks daughter-in-law, and is also a current Facebook friend (yes, Ottawa was a fairly small town, and almost everyone knew everyone else). The following is information she provided.

The recipe actually came from the mother of a girl Snooks’ son, Bob, dated in high school. Bob was at the girl’s home for dinner, loved the lasagna and asked the mother for the recipe. The mother gave him the recipe, and he then gave it to Snooks to see if he could recreate it at home. In another twist to the story, Bob eventually stopped dating the girl, and later met and married Charlean. Charlean told me “Now I don’t know if dad Grobe tweaked it or not, but it became Tony Grobe’s recipe.”

Charlean also told me the lasagna was served at an annual Antique Auction the Epworth United Methodist Church held as a church fund raiser every year. It was a two day event and people came from Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. The Friday night dinner was lasagna, salad and dessert. The dinner was a big deal and brought customers in for the show. Snooks made the lasagna in the beginning, and used large pans, not the 9″x13” dish called for in the recipe. Originally, he was making 6 pans, with 12 huge pieces in each. As the auction grew larger, there was a crew under Snooks’ direction making the lasagna, and they were up to 14 pans.

Snooks passed away in 1977. He had given the recipe to others, so his lasagna was still made at the church for several years after he died. With Snooks no longer there to supervise, the church replaced him with an entire committee, and in the ‘80s, they were up to 18 large pans of lasagna with 18 pieces in every pan. Eventually, the recipe was included in an Epworth Church Cookbook. You know the type of book – a collection of recipes from the congregation, gathered into a soft cover cookbook and sold to raise money for the church.

I mentioned all of this to Cathy, in the hope she would reconsider including the recipe in this blog. Her answer was an emphatic no. “I’m not letting you publish the recipe. If you do, don’t bother coming to bed. If someone wants it so bad, they can go look for the cookbook.”

So there you have it. You can certainly enjoy the lasagna at our home. And I’m sure there are copies of the recipe still floating around Ottawa, and among the Grobes. I think your best bet is to look for an old copy of the Epworth United Methodist Church Cookbook. It may be a difficult find, but trust me, it’s well worth the effort.

Addendum:

It was great fun exchanging texts with Charlean about Snooks and his lasagna. She obviously loved him very much, and was quite generous in sharing information about him, their family and the lasagna. The last thing she shared was “He was a great guy, loved by many, and always enjoyed dressing up. He handed out gum to all the kids at church…. He taught me how to build steps, recover furniture, and sure knew how to catch mice. He was someone who could do just about anything.” Charlean’s husband Bob passed away several years ago and she now lives in Texas with her daughter, Brenda.