I did 2 cups of warm water, 2 tbsp of sugar (optional but it gets the yeast going faster), 2 tsp of salt (may want just 1 instead, I like it a little salty), and a heaping tbsp of yeast. You wait till that bubbles so you know the yeast is alive. Then add flour gradually until it has the consistency of playdough. It has to be kneaded until it's difficult to fold (no more than 10 minutes generally).

At this point I put the dough ball in a lightly oiled bowl to rise. When it doubles in volume you punch it down, I divide it in two, and one usually goes in the fridge (you can freeze it too) and the other goes into a bread pan. That's when I sprinkled the Everything but the Bagel seasoning on and lightly pressed it into the dough.

Then you go for your second rise. Again, it'd double in volume when it's done. You can test it by pressing a finger 1/2" into the dough, if the indentation pops out it's not ready yet, if it stays, it is.

Then I put it in a preheated oven with a oven safe bowl of water for moisture. I think this one was initially 400F then I dropped it to 375F after putting it in. That's all supposed to help the spring (the jump the yeast have from the warm temps before it kills them) and the texture of the crust. It took 40 minutes I believe.

To tell if it's done you tap on the bottom of the loaf, if it sounds hollow it's good, if it doesn't, put it back in the oven for a few minutes. Your sense of smell is helpful too, if it smells like toast you might have gone too long.

That's how I do it, that basic dough can do a lot of stuff too. Pizza crust, kolaches, bread sticks, whatever. But you might want to use an actual recipe. It's not as fun but not all my bread comes out right. I hear the King Arthur flour site has really good bread recipes.