Bread Making

I've decided that 2011 will be the year that I bake bread. Not for all my needs, because there is still a place for thick sliced white bread in my life. It's a skill that, up until now, has eluded me. Although I haven't made that many attempts so eluded may be the wrong word.
At the end of last year myself and a friend were shopping for dinner and we decided that homemade bread would be a good accompaniment. I remembered that there was some yeast in the cupboard (from a previous bread making moment) and, of course, there was flour. I said I would make it as my friend had work to do.
I used a recipe from my Mary Berry cookbook, a plain white loaf and set about making it. Mixing, kneading, proving etc. Once out of the oven it looked OK, smelt great so just the tasting to go.
I then sliced into it, it was so dense it was almost like the dough hadn't cooked at all! But it tasted good, it was warm from the oven and with butter melting into it it just about passed muster. I then looked at the expiry date on the yeast, it had expired in 2007! So I'm determined that I won't let my latest batch of yeast go out of date.
I'm using dried yeast at the moment, I want to master it first before I start buying fresh yeast. Not sure whether I will go down the starter route as yet, but we shall see.
Since then I have made one more loaf and it was heaps better than my first attempt and as we speak there is a Focaccia dough proving in the kitchen. The worst thing about my bread 2011 challenge is that I'm eating a low carb diet at the moment. But I guess some homemade bread once a week won't make that much difference,will it?