I think this recipe as written is great, but I hardly ever leave anything "as written". I just like to experiment! I've added onion powder, garlic powder or fresh minced garlic and parsley (fresh or dried). I also think chopped chives or basil (fresh or dried) would be tasty too. As pictured, I topped the bread with grated Parmesan. The recipe suggests sprinkling with herbs, which looks very nice too.
This recipe as written, calls for mixing the dough by hand. I've learned that just about any recipe can be made using a stand mixer or in a bread machine. For the pictured loaf, I used my bread machine "dough" cycle to mix my dough. You must be sure about the maximum amount of flour your machine can handle. I have an older machine that makes 1 pound and 1.5 pound loaves. Mine had no problem with the 4 1/4 cups of flour called for in this recipe. Newer machines with a 2 pound loaf capacity should be able to handle it too. After mixing the dough in the machine, I removed the dough and prepared as suggested in the recipe.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/garden-herb-loaf/