How do I change the color of the edge (backgroun?)?

[Mwasik]

Some how I mucked this up and now have a burnt orangish color instead of the grey.  This color is way to distracting for me.  Can you tell me how to get it back to grey?  And what is that area technically called?

[Christina Keddie]

It looks like you straightened the image and extended the canvas to account for the new angle of the photo?  If that's in fact the case, then PS added the new canvas on the edges in whatever color you had selected as your background swatch at the time.

Whatever it is you did to the image, you did to the image -- it's not part of the pasteboard (or background) of PS.  It's on the file itself.  So walk yourself back -- did you extend the canvas or rotate the image at all?