Italian Herb Bread

I love baking bread.  I get to squish dough.  It makes the whole apartment smell delicious.  It makes me feel like a real baker, and I can multitask while it's in progress.  My bread usually doesn't turn out spectacularly, but it's not bad.  This recipe turned out ridiculously well though; we ate half the loaf before it had even cooled.  It's soft, fluffy, with just enough herbs to be tasty but not overwhelming.  The crust is thin and not too crusty.  I think I'm getting the hang of the steps of making bread.

First, the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/italian-herb-bread-i/

Which I halved and tweaked into:

1 packet active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
1.5 tsp salt
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (the dusty kind)
3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour (I find this sometimes dries recipes out, so I didn't want to use too much)
2 cups bleached all purpose flour

I basically followed the instructions on the page, with a few tips I've learned from other bread attempts.  First, fill the bowl up with warm water then dump it out, so that when you pour the water + sugar + yeast into it, the bowl doesn't make it too cold.  Add the flour slowly -- after the first 2 cups or so, add it about 1/4 cup at a time, so you don't end up with too much.  As you knead it, you'll end up putting more into it to keep it from sticking to your hands.  I have a habit of pacing around the apartment while squishing the ball of dough, rather than kneading it on a counter top, which means I only have to worry about it sticking to my hands and not the counter.  Make sure you actually do roll the dough in the oil when you're leaving it to rise, or it'll get a gross dried-out outside that doesn't squish nicely back into the rest of the dough; same about remembering to dampen the towel.  I found that this bread flattened out a little after I shaped it into a loaf; I'd recommend making it into a ridiculous looking tall-and-skinny loaf so it ends up a little taller than mine did.  Super tasty bread!