This is a two part question and the two kind of go hand-in-hand. First off, I'm a bit new to backpacking in general. The most I've done is a week-long trip on the Long Trail. I've found that I'm terrible at packing food and I always pack more than I need. I'm planning on joining my buddy for the first couple of weeks of his AT thru hike and I'm wondering about how people typically resupply and what they do for cooking. In the past, I've brought most of what I'm going to eat with me and that tends to be store-bought dehydrated meals. Since we'd be planning on resupplying at grocery stores, what do people typically buy that will also be conducive to quick cooking? I don't want to go through the hassle of dehydrating my own meals and sending them down.
This leads to the second part of my question. Does anyone have a good suggestion for an all-around cooking system, including pot, stove, windscreen, stand. I bought a whisperlite ages ago, before I started researching more about lightweight hiking, but never actually used it. I understand that this is a bit overkill for solo use, especially since I'm trying to cut down weight. On one trip I used my friend's JetBoil, which was fantastic. I also made a DIY alcohol stove for my last trip, which worked well but by the end of the week was a bit squished and leaking flames out of the sides. I'm leaning towards purchasing a professionally-made alcohol stove, possibly the caldera cone, on account of its versatility in fuel sources. However, if I can't find food that works well with the boil water and let it sit method of cooking (see part 1), then I'm not sure it'll be good enough. I've also never bought a pot, so suggestions on what would work well with a given stove and windscreen combo would be much appreciated.
Thanks!