Success (kind of!)
Having absolutely no luck with the latest versions of Anaconda and Knime, I decided to go back in time. I uninstalled everything then installed:
Anaconda3 4.2.0 - this was the last version packaged with Python 3.5
Knime 3.5.3
I then ran:
conda update conda
conda update anaconda
conda install -c anaconda keras
Everything looked to install okay. I see pandas, numpy and keras in when entering the commad ‘conda list’
Here is my ‘conda info’
after installing the latest python extension available in the Knime 3.5.3 installation, I set the path in the Knime Python preferences to my main anaconda python.exe
It worked!
Now, when I tried to load the example Keras cats and dogs workflow, I received a notice that I need to update to Knime 3.6 to access some required nodes. I proceeded with the update which updated all my python integration extensions. I then downloaded the appropriate Keras extensions.
Looks like the python extension is still recognized! I ran a simple python workflow and it worked. I still need to work through the KERAS workflow but things are looking good!
Thanks for all the input and help troubleshooting. The Knime community is great!