I'm living in Germany for the summer, and have been wondering how to have my own little personal celebration of July 4th. Big Mac meal? Buying all the "American" branded items at Lidl? (and yes, there is an entire half aisle covered in red, white, and blue that features frozen hamburgers and pre-packaged brownies, etc.) Home cooking of some sort? And yet, what would be considered an "American" meal?

Being a student, the summer months actually give me time to cook dishes that may be more challenging and/or time consuming. What dishes do you think are worthy of being considered a "challenge" to master? Doesn't necessarily have to be 30 steps long. It could be a simple two step, 3 ingredient sauce or dish, but I'm just looking for classics that people usually take short cuts around or don't attempt at home (traditional tagiatelle a la bolognese comes to mind, or maybe the perfect apple pie).

Small caveat: I'm currently living in Europe for about 2 and a half months on a summer internship, and am renting a dorm room from a local university. This means that I have the BASIC cooking supplies (i.e. basically just a stove/oven), and I'm less than willing to buy a ton of pantry staples such as flour, sugar, etc. that I won't be able to finish and will have to go to waste when I leave.