which is normally done on an Arduino using the serial monitor
You have several options for debugging a Attiny85 using the serial monitor
SoftwareSerial
TinyDebugSerial
These options require that you connect a Serial/USB connector to the tiny when you want to communicate with it (and remove your programmer)
TinyISP:
Serial Relay
Knock-Bang
Null debugger
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,123388.30.html
With these you can leave all the wires from the programmer (Arduino) and use the serial monitor with a single command.
A big thank to Coding Badly for this solution.
The one that feels most Arduino-like is Serial-Relay in my opinion.