uniform background color throughout

I am tearing my hair out trying to make my site’s background all one uniform color. Don’t have much more hair to go.

I’ve succeeded in changing what WP calls the “background” and I added this bit of code to my Twenty Twelve Child theme.

article {
background: #F8F2E6;
}

…which successfully colored the area behind the blog post. BUT I want all the white background gone and replaced with the beige color. I can’t figure it out, and any help would be appreciated.

Also.. I’m hoping that the drop shadow that’s now surrounding the big white area can go away. The idea is… solid beige throughout.

THANKS
D