A vegetarian's kid

Today at book club a couple kids had been eating Jello at the counter. As Jacob settled down at the counter for some zucchini bread I said, "Oh, wait a sec, I want to wipe up that Jello." Jacob looked puzzled and asked me, "Mommy, what's Jello?" All the moms looked at me and laughed because they know this about me. They know we're vegetarians and the moms and I have actually had the Jello conversation before.

Then we all kind of looked at each other because how do you explain Jello to a kid other than to to just give 'em a dish and let them go to town? So it was funny on a couple different levels. I couldn't come up with a decent explanation, I just said "It's something we don't eat because we're vegetarian." And no one else had a better answer either.