Coffee Roasting

My quest for the perfect cup of coffee continues. First the press pot, then grind beans right before use, then perfect perportions, perfect brew timing, a whole host of different coffees in airtight storage, filtered water... and then a big gap of no new innovations untill my birthday. I've talked about it but never acted, roasting green coffee beans for myself. Kathy gave me 2pounds of green coffee beans, 1lb of Costa Rican Peaberry & 1lb Kenyan Peaberry.
Now, I am not gonna buy some expensive machine for hundreds of dollars. With coffee, and other things, I espouse the fundamaental tenent, simplicity mastered yeilds the most desirable results. Last year I saw a demonstration of traditional Ethiopian coffee roasting, in a pan over a fire. While an open fire may not be practicle, the concept is transfered easily enough to any kitchen with a stove. As you may or may not know, I am a thrift store junky; not just clothes, but pictures, board games, cookbooks, misc things, and kitchen supplies. For some reason I'd bought a wide, shallow, stainless steel pan with a lid some time ago, and I'd found no good use for it. Then I recieve beans and instructions... recieved because I was to lazy to initiate it myself. Needed a thermometer as 350 to 500deg were key temperatures. Got it. Need to install the thermometer to the pan, drilled a whole in the pans lid, installed it. Then I roasted coffee.
Have now done it twice, first on Friday and second last night. I over roasted my first batch. Drank the coffee Saturday morning and was less than impressed. It was thin and empty. I paid closer attention and adapted my process to observations from my first go round. I'll be damned, I did a really good job. My second roasting attempt and it turned out really well. Kinda weird, didn't seem like I should be able to do it... on top of it, I'll only get better. As with most things trial and error, learn from all the trials and squelch out errors, hone. If done properly, this is an active process, being aware of what was done right and wrong and building from there.
I sure do love coffee, just wish there was the slightest health benifit from it, unfortunately, there isn't.