You can find the Gourmet Kitchen featured above in The Sierra, located at Preservation Pointe, just 10 minutes from uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.

Spring forward in this gourmet kitchen with a delicious spring recipe!

Asparagus is a great spring time vegetable!

Buying Tip: The slender, earliest stalks are the most tender.

Preparation Tip: Begin preparing the asparagus by simply trimming off the bottom ends of the stalks, about 1  inch.

Colorful Spring Penne with Cherry Tomatoes and Asparagus

Ingredients:

8 ounces penne pasta

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 pounds thin asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 cups cherry tomatoes

1 cup fresh or frozen sweet peas

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of the pasta water.

In a large saute pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, cook about 1 minute. Add the asparagus, season with the salt and pepper, and cook for 3 minutes until slightly soft. Add the cherry tomatoes and peas. Cook for 2 minutes. Pour the chicken stock into the pan and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook until the tomatoes start to burst and the stock is reduced by half, about 3 minutes.

Transfer the asparagus mixture to a large serving bowl. Add the cooked pasta and 1/2 of the Parmesan. Toss well, adding reserved pasta water, if needed, to loosen the pasta. Garnish with the remaining Parmesan and chopped basil.

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If you’re in the market for a new home, now is the best time to buy. Mortgage rates are at historic lows, and home prices have bottomed out in most markets. This is a good week to buy a house!

Volatility in the stock market has investors looking for safer places to stash their cash this week. Despite the downgrades, many investors fled to the relative security of long term U.S. Treasury Bonds, pushing down rates.

Rates for mortgages and other consumer loans tend to mirror the movements in the U.S. bond market. The rates on 30-year mortgages are highly correlated with the rate of the U.S. 10-year Bond. Despite Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. debt Friday night, investors still fled to long term U.S. Treasuries Monday through Thursday. The 10-year Treasury bond rate is at all time lows.

Tuesday’s decision by the Federal Reserve to keep the target federal funds rate low until 2013 was a result of considerably slower economic growth. This is the first time the Fed has pegged its low rate to a date and the announcement of the timeframe was aimed at calming nervous investors. A low rate is supposed to stimulate economic growth by making it cheaper to borrow money for consumption or investment. When investors have confidence in the market and have the ability to borrow, money flows out of long-term treasuries into stocks, bonds and commodities. Ultimately, this will causes mortgage rates to rise.

While people continue to worry about the market conditions, U.S. Treasury securities will remain attractive to anxious investors. There is no telling when mortgage rates will go up or how far they will rise. Homebuyers with stable incomes and job security should take advantage of the low 30-year fixed rates now. Buying a home now can allow you to make a significant positive impact on your long term net worth.

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These tips for saving on your home energy bill come from the Standard Pacific Homes Winter 2010 newsletter:

1. Set your thermostat to 68 degrees or lower. According to PSNC, for each degree above 68, your heating bill increases by 8 to 10 percent.

2. Replace or clean your HVAC filters once a month, or more often if needed. This simple task, combined with tip #3, could improve your system’s energy efficiency by as much as 10 percent.

3. Clean your warm-air registers and cool-air returns regularly by vacuuming or dusting. Make sure they are not blocked by furniture or drapes.

4. Use kitchen and bathroom ventilation fans prudently; in just one hour, these fans can pull out a household full of warmed air. Turn fans off as soon as they have done their job.

5. Keep doors to the outside closed. Contrary to popular belief, storm doors are usually not very effective as heat transfer barriers. Always close your primary door after entering or leaving your house.

6. Open shades and/or drapes on sunny winter days to help warm your house — especially any south-facing windows. Close curtains and shades closed at night or on cloudy days to help reduce the amount of heat that escapes.

7. Do not heat unused rooms in your home. Close vents in extra rooms, but do not close more than 20 percent of the total number of vents that your home has.

8. Check the setting on the thermostat of your water heater. Set it to “medium” or to 120 degrees. Heating water to a higher temp than is needed not only increases the amount of energy used, but is also a safety concern.

9. Have a licensed heating technician inspect your system each year. Most offer a service package to inspect twice a year.

10. Turn off all lights, televisions, radios and appliances when not in use.

11. Use low-wattage light bulbs where you can. Consider compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs). Although they cost more than standard incandescent bulbs, they last ten times longer (over five years in many cases) and only use 25 percent of the electricity that conventional bulbs use.